GB:CD  Heat Rising
by GhostbustersChicago
Summary: After a long dormancy, Dan Shannon and Zach LaVoy pull the GB:CD out of mothballs to investigate a new rash of murders involving a demon that can accelerate particles to the point of ignition. By Dan Shannon
1. Chapter 1

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 1: Strange Happenings

We come upon a dusty old firehouse in the midst of Chinatown. The firehouse was once booming with activity, vehicles of all kinds with loud sirens and flashing lights screeching out of the two garage doors in the front. Even while it no longer acted as an actual fire department, activities of the same nature still ran true to its original purpose. Well, almost.

The familiar logo in the middle of the top windows still sat, but at night the sign only lit halfway due to a broken florescent bulb in the middle of the sign's innards. Graffiti now littered the front of the building as well as the sides. If they could get to the roof, they'd do the same to that too. The locals have no problem with sticking door hanging signs on the side door's knob right where it obviously says, "No Solicitors."

The building was by no means abandoned. A man walking from the local Red Line walks up to the side door. As he went to put his key into the door he finds himself annoyed as he tears the door hangers off the graffiti-ridden door and unlocks his way inside. He flicks the switches next to the entrance and the main garage area of the building lit up completely, then 2 of the lights on the ceiling turned off again. "Great," says the man now walking his way past an SUV painted like a Chicago Police cruiser.

He walked back to another door on the other side of the garage. In the second garage parking bay was an empty space. Traces of another vehicle are present on the floor of the bay – oil and coolant stains fairly fresh in the cement. As he unlocked the door marked, "Danger – Authorized Personnel Only" he couldn't help but look back at the empty vehicle bay and shake his head. As he opened the door and stepped in, he sighed.

Once inside the door there were a set of steps leading down to the basement. A soft hum was heard as he approached the bottom. As he tread the floor he sees a very large green metal device in the far left corner of the basement. He approached the computer console on the side of the device and checked all the programming for it. It was holding up. All was safe.

After checking the vitals on the device, he sat at an orange counter on the other side of the room. As he sat upon the stool and swiveled around to look at the many strewn about parts on the counter, parts left behind by a friend years ago.

Dr. Zachary LaVoy shuffled parts around on the counter to reveal plans to some device Dan Shannon, Ghostbusters' Chicago office's resident engineer, was in the middle of building when business stopped. When the money ran out, there was nothing left but to close up shop until such time. Even then the only member of Chicago Division that stayed with the group the longest was Dan. Dr. Bryan Howell had quit to pursue his new life as a Meteorologist in St. Paul, Dr. Ed Ulatoski had went to fight in Iraq and had decided to stay with the military, Lynn Springsteed had a falling out with Dan over their relationship in both love and work and decided to leave to become a firefighter once again.

Dan, although the longest runner for keeping the group together with as little as hope possible, had left the franchise to Zach to take up a regular 9-5. Zach was the last of the group. In making sure the building and the equipment stayed the same way, he had to sell Bryan's pride and joy, the Ecto-CD – The original 1959 Cadillac Ambulance used by the division to cart their equipment around in. The vehicle, although very heartbreaking to sell, earned enough capital to keep the franchise fee up to date. It was getting harder and harder to keep the money man away. His Occult shop was close to bankruptcy using the capital from that to keep the building and the Ecto-Containment system online.

"What em I gonna do?" the occultist asked himself, "I'm so close so screwed I feel like I'm gonna be thrown into the spirit realm. At least there, I'll feel spared."

After thinking about it, Zach decided it was time to stop living in the past. In the end, he realized Dan was never going to come back. He adjourned upstairs to sit in the seat his sister occupied during college as secretary to wait by the phones as he hopefully did for years. There was only one thing he kept to mind, "Well, if today isn't the day, " he said, "there's always tomorrow."

Late June. It was a very hot time of year to be standing outside like a chump. Next to a large metal cabinet there was an AT&T truck parked in a parking lot of a CVS pharmacy. A large yellow umbrella was erected next to the box with the box's doors open. We can hear some rustling behind the doors as snips and grunts came from the person working inside. From under the doors of the open cabinet a set of small scissors hits the ground as a swear was heard, "Goddamnit." The feet of the person are clearly seen under the doors as we see the feet shift around as though he was going for the dropped tool.

In the mist of doing so, we hear a slam and a bang, "Damnit! Son-of-a-bitch!" He stood up and got caught in the umbrella, "Oh, come the fuck on!" As the man struggled under the umbrella, another pick-up truck with an AT&T logo on it approached the cabinet. A man dressed in a white embroidered AT&T shirt comes up to the cabinet kind of laughing as he approached.

Dan Shannon emerged from the umbrella wearing a white t-shirt with an orange safety vest over it, an AC/DC hat and a pair of aviator glasses. He saw the man approaching as he folded the umbrella up and tossed it to the side, "Oh, hey Dave. Didn't hear you come up" Dave Barbel was Dan's field manager for U-verse. He laughed a bit more as he saw Dan bend down to pick up his wire scissors, "Heard you had an issue with this customer's line."

"Yeah," Dan began, "needed installation and repair to find the pairs in the box. Nick's still at the house." "Well," his manager interjected, "I need you back at the garage for something, so I have Alex on his way over."

"Did I do something wrong?" Dan asked.

"Um... Actually, it has to do with your qualifications. I really need you to come back to the garage." Dave's face was no longer his normal, lad-back expression, but it was instead that of a nervous expression.

Back at the garage located in Rockdale, Il, Dave's pick-up pulled into the compound followed by Dan's truck. Dan parked his truck and saw his manager waving him to the side door to the garage. Dave stopped Dan short of going inside the door, "hold on. I just want you to know that this is between you, me, the other managers, and Robbie. Okay?"

"What happened," Dan asked, "Robbie find my nudie pen?"

Dave blinked a few times, "You have a Nudie Pen?"

"Aw, crap."

Dave shook his head, "No, that's not it. Um... Just look," he opened the door and allowed him to walk in. Next to the door was the ice maker that everyone used to load up their coolers with so they had cool water. On the right side of the garage was a cage filled with boxes, but it looked the cage was somewhat destroyed.

"Okay, so, Robbie needs to clean the stock cage. What the hell does that have to do with me?" Dave dragged him inside the cage to find all the boxes covered in a blue film. Dan slowly walked up to it and skimmed some of the material off the boxes and rubbed it in his fingers. It was cold. Extremely cold. It was smoking from the cold wave coming over it. "Oh, crap."

Dan walked his way out the door and to his car, passing Dave by. "Hey, where you going? Hey, wait a second!"

Dan walked to his beat up VW Jetta and proceeded to the trunk. He was rummaging around as Dave came to the trunk. "Is that... Is that one of those..."

Inside the trunk of Dan's car was a Proton Pack. "AT&T tells us to maintain our tools," Dan stated to his manager, "Ghostbusters International said the same thing. Help me get this thing on."

Dan walked in the door, Proton Pack strapped on and activated. Over his eyes was a set of Ecto-Goggles and in his hand was a PKE meter. Still wearing his orange vest, he looked rather ridiculous, but he went on inside the garage with caution. Dave followed behind him just to see what was going on.

"I have to ask," Dan started, "why did you call me out? Most of the time people who live around here call the Joliet Section Ghostbusters."

"The company didn't want the attention. We knew you were a Ghostbuster for Chicago, so..." "Got it," Dan filled in, "company confidentiality. Just get in the office and I'll take care of it." With that, Dave walked into the office and locked the door.

Dan walked around the empty garage floor and scanned. He was showing a class 5 on his equipment. Problem is the PKE was only reading the Ectoplasm. He lifted the goggles from his eyes and looked around. There was a sudden rumble and he turned to look where it was coming from. The ice machine was making noises. He approached the machine to check it out. He pulled his particle thrower from the pack and used the barrel of the thrower to open the hatch on the ice chute. There was a sudden clank. Dan jumped as he readied his thrower...

And a ton of ice dumped into the receptacle bin.

Dan relaxed, "Hell. I hate when tha..." Before he could finished, the ice machine started shooting ice at him. After getting pelted with enough ice, Dan opened fire. The more he shot into the device the more the device melted over.

Dan stopped shooting to see what damage he was doing. He pulled out his PKE meter and saw it climbing, "This can't be good." A mist started rolling out of the device and covered the floor. "What in hell's name?" For a moment, the mist started to coagulate into a human form then dissipated and flowed for the office door. Dan let loose the particles again in an attempt to capture it. The mist flowed under the door as Dan ripped through the door with the thrower.

He cut the fire and ran toward the door. Dan attempted to open the door, but the door was locked. About to kick the door down, Dave, the other 2 managers, and another tech ran out of the office and knocked Dan over. Dan looked up to find everyone running toward the other end of the garage, "Don't mind me, DON'T MIND ME!" The Ghostbuster got up and walked into the office door. With a careful look he saw nothing unusual.

"Huh. That's different," was all Dan could comment. After a moment or two, he noticed it was getting rather cold in the office. "Jesus Christ," he began to state, "it's like they cranked the A/C to Arctic and broke off the dial." Consulting the PKE meter again, he looked around with the device in hand to locate the specter in question. The signal was weak, but he found it was around the corner of the office where the conference room was located. The hallway was rather short. There wasn't much area to cover, but the readings were there.

As he passed the breakroom, the arms on the meter rose. Dan stopped and moved back and forth to get his bearings. "Naw," was all came out of the former Ghostbuster's mouth. He looked into the break room door and pointed the meter to the refrigerator and the indicator wings on the meter rose all the way up. "You can't be serious!" Holstering the meter, Dan pulled the thrower off his belt and once again used the tip to open the freezer door.

A large burst of steam and jagged ice shot from the freezer knocking Dan back into the counter behind him. The steam shot into the main office and seconds later a loud scream was heard. Dan ran into the main cubical space to find a misty figure of a woman standing between his manager's cubical and the main door to the garage area of the facility. Dan raised his thrower, "What the hell are you?"

"Beware the fire, for it shall consume the innocent," was all the figure said before bursting into smoke and flew out one of the open windows behind his manager's cubical. Dan ran to the window, then turned around to run out the office door outside to the motor pool. Taking out his meter to take another scan, the PKE in the immediate area disappeared. Dan walked to the middle of the driveway to the motor pool and looked at the gate leading into the compound. He saw nothing.

The two managers and the tech ran up behind Dan, "Did you get it?"

"Get it," Dan retorted, "I don't even know what the fuck it was!"

Out in the distance from the garage, there was a lone figure standing behind the chain-link fence of the building in front of the AT&T compound. It slinks back into the obscure as it makes itself vanish into the unknown.

Being released early for the day, Dan went to the supermarket to do some mandatory food shopping. Happy he was out of work early, hauntings – for lack of better description – came back from his past as he walked the isles of the Food 4 Less he was visiting. He was slightly unhappy for the fact he needed to pull the Proton Pack out of his trunk to go after that... THING. He had thought the last link he had to his former ambitions were all but gone, every frightening thought he had ever gained from that god-forsaken job just a mere dream to him flooded his memory like a wide awake nightmare.

Maybe it was just a fluke, he figured. Maybe he was just imagining things. Wouldn't be the first time he stood at an AT&T crossbox and thought something dead was chasing him. Then again, it was odd that his own manager asked him back into the garage to handle something weird.

But then there's the question of that plastic canister filled with an Ectoplasm sample in his cargo pocket. He felt it, it was colder than a box of green peas. Something wasn't right in the world. He always had a sense of things not exactly being right. It was at though something was trying to draw his attention back to something important. He saw a pattern forming.

As Dan stood in the soup aisle deciding on what soups he wanted, he heard a commotion. "Now what?" Leaving his cart behind he peered around the corner of the aisle to see a flock of people running away from something in a panic. Dan rolled his eyes, "Don't tell me," Out of one of the aisles a large goat-legged beast ran out behind the crowd and roared.

Dan sighed and he dishearteningly pushed his cart toward the front of the store, walked away from the cart to go outside, and as the beast made a mess of the place retrieved his Proton Pack from his car.

The beast made a rampage throughout the store smashing displays for Mountain Dew and crushing all the boxes of cereal in the front of the store. It made it's way toward one of the cashiers. He stood there in fright holding a barcode scanning gun as he looked up at the beast. It was like a demon from the game Doom staring him down. He grabbed him by the front of his work vest as he picked him up, "You shall be my sustenance, weakling! Prepare for my bowels!"

A yellow and blue beam of energy rang through the air as the end of the beam struck the beast in the back of the head. "Sorry, assgasket," a voice called out, "Lunch is on hold!" The demon screamed as he dropped the cashier. The kid ran as the demon turned around to find the AT&T employee armed with a nuclear accelerator who's attention is turned on the big gray beast in the middle of the checkout aisle. The demon laughed, "You think that puny magic wand will defeat Skerkipy, the worlds most dangerous predator?"

Dan smiled, "Seeing it isn't magic" he grabbed the intensity knob and turned it all the way up, "Yeah, I do."

The demon let a large bellow out as the beams alterations started to effect him. The beams thrashed back and forth as Dan pulled the demon left and right to ware down it's PKE accumulation. The Demon grabbed whatever it could to keep from losing its ground including cash registers, checkout aisle's candy racks, and even the indicator lights that tell what lanes are open. The AT&T tech thrashed the beast until he was able to fling him overhead and slam him head first into a Heinz ketchup condiment display.

Dan grabbed the trap from his belt and slid it underneath the beast as he was slightly dazed. Stomping on the trigger pedal, a cone of light shot from the small box as the beast started struggling against the protonic suction of the light. The beam was the only thing left holding the demon from truly being entrapped in the small box with black and yellow doors. He demon screamed, "I am the Ultimate Warrior!"

"Nope," Dan responded, "The Ultimate Warrior was a WWF Wrestler. Now, you're as washed up as him," With that, he released the pedal and the gray, goat-legged demon disappeared into the box, doors sealing with a "clunk" and confirming it's entrapment with three beeps. He walked up to the smoking box and grabbed the loaded device by it's remote cord. The people around him started clapping, applauding.

The applauding wasn't what caught Dan's attention. The fact that two times in the same day, Dan's old job came back to haunt him. Something was extremely wrong.

In Chicago's loop, more specifically the Chicago Water Maintenance roads beneath lower Michigan Avenue, a man with long dark brown hair, multiple piercings, and wearing a black and green jacket depicting the Green Lantern character from DC Comics walks along the underbelly of the main streets minding his own business. There was something about him. An aura. It was as though the air around him was sticky and uncomfortable. The man walked his way down the sidewalk of the maintenance road walking past all the vents of the buildings who's entrances lie above.

He felt the blasts of hot air shoot from the vents blowing his hair around in a wild fashion. As he walked through each blast of air from each corresponding vent, a look of slight euphoria came across his face as though he was welcoming the hot air greeting his senses. He had his eyes shut as he walked down the road...

He bumps into a bum staggering around in the walkway, pulling him out of his serenity. The bum – a man with long black hair under an orange and dark blue hat, dirty white trench coat and a dark blue hoodie – walked in front of the man and started screaming while holding up a Styrofoam cup, "CHANGE! You got change?" The man tried to walk sidestep to get around the gentleman just to be cut off again.

"Come on, help a guy out? Change! I want to see Hotel Transylvania! I hear it's about a group of classic monsters including Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula and the Werewolf who are hiding out in a hotel on the outskirts of Transylvania now that 21st century technology has seemingly made them irrelevant! It's like Van Helsing, but much lamer! CHANGE!"

The man started to shiver from this lunatics rantings. A single bead of sweat dripped from his brow as his anger grew. "Can I at least see Marvin the Martian? I hear it's as funny as all the other Looney Toon's cartoons!" There was a sudden temperature change. The bum started looking around as he started to sweat, "Is it me, or are the drugs kicking in a little quicker than usual?"

A distance from the alley, we see a sickly orange glow. As time quickly passes, the glow becomes blinding as a scream was heard.

Zach was face down on the desk. There was a pool of drool under his open mouth as a somber snore rang throughout the firehouse. He shifted back and forth on the invoice papers and final notice letters thrown about the desk as he made himself more comfortable. The door on the other side of the firehouse opened as a figure walked in, a smoke trail following behind him.

A loaded Ghost Trap dropped on a the desk with a loud thud as Zach woke up with start. He quickly sat up in the seat as he saw a man wearing a dark blue short sleeved AT&T work shirt standing in front of the desk. Zach put his glasses on to see who it was. "Dan," he said, sleep still lingering in his voice, "what the hell'er you doing here?"

"Take a good wiff," was all Dan said. The smoke coming from the loaded trap hit Zach's senses as suddenly he woke up. "What..." was all Zach could get out before Dan interrupted him, "You wouldn't believe the day I've had." He pulled out the plastic Ziplock sandwich container loaded with the blue slime in it. He tossed in on the desk next to the trap. At first there was simple condensation on it, but after a moment the condensation started to turn into frost.

Zach slumped back in his seat, "What in the flue buck?"


	2. Chapter 2

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 2: Past Reexamined

Two Chicago Public Works trucks made their way down to the Maintenance road under lower Michigan Ave. Both trucks park as one man steps out of the rear truck with a safety vest on. The man in the lead truck stepped out after him and called out to him, "Wait, Doug! Hold on!"

The man stopped and turned around, "What?" "You don't even know what we're doing yet!"

"Yeah I do, we need to replace a sewer sensor because the one down there is burned out."

"But you're going the wrong way, Doug. The manhole is in a blind alley over here."

Both men walked toward the alley. There was a smell. Rancid in nature, unlike the other fowl odors that ransacked the lower maintenance levels of the city's streets. No, there was something wrong. Smelling really horrible. The closer they approached the alley they needed to do work on, the smell got worse. It also got hotter. Very hot. There was also a sound. Like the sizzling of fat, like bacon on a skillet.

The first city worker got to the alley to find something on the ground. He found where the sound was coming from. He started walking backwards until the other worker grabbed him, "Chance, what the hell are you..." Without letting him finish, he grabbed his fellow worker by the arm and showed him. He gave a face of horror as he covered his mouth with his hand to stop the smell.

"Oh, God," was all either one of them could say. After a moment, one of them finally said it, "We gotta call someone."

"Yeah, but who?"

"Look, past matters have to be put behind us for right now," Dan said, pacing back and forth in the empty vehicle bay of the garage. The engineer turned around as he looked back at the Occultist at the desk, "Within an hour of the first encounter, I trap this freaky SOB in a Food 4 Less and on the ride up here, I checked the PKE readings with my meter only to find there is a large power increase all the way up here."

Zach stood out of the chair he sat in, "I don't get it. I've been monitoring the levels while I was here." He walked up to one of the free standing computer terminals and punched up a program until it loaded on the screen. It showed a series of bars, all of them green. "See?" he started, "All good."

Dan walked up to the computer and pushed Zach aside. He opened the web browser to find he couldn't get a connection. "Zach?" he said in a Sing-Song like voice, "did you pay the internet bill?"

"Not for the last year. Couldn't afford it. Why?" he asked.

"Because all the PKE sensors in the city are hooked into the internet, you fuckhead!" Dan shook his head and sat at the desk. After slamming his head into the desk, in a slightly muffled voice, he spoke, "We're sitting on a paranormal powder keg and the only warning we get..." before he could finish, the phone suddenly rang.

Dan rose his head quickly to look at it. The phone rang again as he turned around to look at Zach. "No way," was all the Occultist said. The phone rang a third time and Dan grabbed the receiver, "Ghostbusters: Chicago Division, Shannon speaking."

The underground water maintenance roads. It was a place neither one of them thought they were going to end up. In the old SUV dubbed Chi-Ecto, Dan and Zach approached the area which was littered with police cars, a fire truck that was just pulling away, and a Crime Scene Investigation unit vehicle. It was rather busy for an area that was unknown to the general public.

As they approached, the truck started knocking and sputtering, "What the hell, man!" Dan blurted out, "That's the 3rd time it's done that!" He turned to Zach, "When was the last time you drove this thing?"

"Never drove it. I don't have a driver's license." was Zach's response as they parked. "Remind me," Dan stated, "when we get back to the firehouse, I'm to tear out your Adam's Apple." With that, Dan opened his door and walked out. With Zach following behind, he approached the officers at the crime scene taking pictures.

One of the police stopped Dan and Zach short of coming close, "Sorry, this is a closed off area, you're going to have to vacate." "Sorry officer," Dan began, "We're with Ghostbusters: Chicago Division. Someone in your office called us out to come to this area?"

The officer looked at Dan's clothes and shook his head, "Right, sir. Please vacate to your tru..." The officer looked at the Ectomobile and took notice of all the equipment on the roof rack. "You really are Ghostbusters?"

"Yeah. I'm Dan Shannon, this is Dr. Zach LaVoy. Who's running this investigation?"

"Detective Bellum." Right at this time another detective came from behind and started to talk to him. Dan took this time to talk to Zach, "Detective Bellum, eh? We'll, me and him are gonna have words."

"Particular reason?" Zach asked as he scratched the side of his nose.

"I donno. I just get this feeling I'm gonna have to put a boot in someone's ass." Dan turned back to the officer, "When is this detective supposed to get here?"

"Any time now. Come this way." The officer leads both Ghostbusters to the alley. "Ugh," Zach recoiled in disgust, "What the hell is that smell?" "That doesn't smell like any Ectoplasm I've come in contact with before," Dan concurred. When they got past the cop cars and the yellow "Do Not Cross" tape, both Ghostbusters looked down to find a charred human corpse.

"WHOA!" Dan exclaimed very loudly. "What the hell happened?" Zach asked.

"You tell us," was all the officer said before walking back to his post. Dan and Zach looked at each other and shrugged. Zach pulled the PKE meter out of his back pocket as Dan looked over the body. Dan started to choke up as he looked over the body. The smell was almost unbearable. He noticed a film over the corpse as well as a good amount of liquid around him. He noticed it was a lot warmer closer to the body than anywhere else.

"A lot of Ectoplasm," Dan stated, "Whatever the hell happened, it has the power to char things crispier than fried chicken." Dan was about to scoop up some of the slime with his fingers when one of the officers grabbed him and pulled him back. "You don't want to do that!" the officer exclaimed. "Why?" the AT&T employee asked. "Unless you wanna burn yourself with that shit," the officer who pulled him back pointed to a fellow officer by the paramedic getting his hand bandaged up, "my suggestion: leave that shit alone."

"Dan," Zach called out. "Find something on the PKE?" Dan asked as he stood up.

"Yeah, whole place is contaminated. I'm reading at least a class 6."

"Class 6? The whole area?"

"Yeah. It's like the Ectoplasm is feeding off something. It's environmentally effected somehow."

"Great," was all Dan could say. He bit the left side of his lower lip as he looked back at Zach, "Alright, I need you to get to the truck and get an Ecto-sample collector and a container that won't melt, we're also gonna have... to..."

Dan trailed off as he looked over Zach's shoulder to find another police cruiser, a dark blue unmarked, pulled up to the scene. Out of the car steps a very beautiful woman in a suit. She had dark brown hair up in a pony tail, her bangs were long enough to hide behind her ears. She was wearing a pair of aviators similar to his over her eyes. She approached the crime scene flashing her badge to officers about to step in her way. One officer stopped her to talk to her for a moment.

"Dude?" Zach grabbed Dan's arm and shook him, "You okay?" Dan shook himself out of his trance as he realized what was going on, "Yeah, I'm okay. Just head to the truck and get that stuff I asked for." Zach left as Dan turned around to look back over the body. He noticed a half melted Styrofoam cup with change in it. He bent down to get a look at it...

"There is such thing as tampering with a police investigation," Dan heard a female voice call out. He stood up, "Even if the Chicago Police called you out here?" He turned around to face the police woman he was focused on no more than a moment ago. "I guess in some instances," the police woman started, "we can ignore procedure," she took off her glasses and introduced herself while extending her hand, "Detective Janice Bellum, Chicago Police Paranormal Crimes Unit."

Dan's eyebrows fluttered a bit. He looked into her warm brown eyes, almost entranced again, "Uh... Dan Shannon, Ghostbusters: Chicago Division..." Dan looked down at his attire, "Well, kinda." He shook her hand. After he released her hand he thought for a second. "Wait," he inquired, "what do you mean, 'Paranormal Crimes Unit'?"

"In Chicago Division's absence, Ghostbusters International Internal Affairs wanted to mandate that all major cities police forces have a Paranormal Crimes team put together to investigate homicides committed by paranormal entities. Chicago was one of the test cities."

"Funny," Dan said with a chuckle, "we lose the Olympic bid, but we can have the first paranormal crime lab. I swear, this city is hosed." Janice giggled a little, then she got serious, "We called you out here because two city workers who were on their way to repair a sewer sensor found the body. Being covered in this ecto shit clearly denotes Paranormal Activity."

"Who was he?"

"We're not sure at this time. We're still waiting for the Cook County Coroner to arrive to do an autopsy."

"Autopsy?" Dan exclaimed, "It's pretty damn obvious how he died!"

"We need to find out his identity and figure out what his relationship to the thing that killed him was. We hope that might help us figure him out."

Dan looked back from the body with a confused look on his face, "Him? Why do you suspect the thing that did this is a him?"

Before she could answer, Zach came up with a special ladle on an extension arm and a stainless steel canister with a "RADIOACTIVE" label on it. "Here ya go, chief," he said while dumping the equipment into Dan's arms. As Zach was doing so, his cell phone went off, "Ghostbusters: Chicago Division, Dr. LaVoy speaking." After a moment on the phone, he walked up to Dan and took one of the pens out of his AT&T shirt's pocket and walked to the hood of one of the police cars.

Janice looked at Dan. Something about that look she was giving was starting to make him unnerved. Zach hung up his phone and walked back to the two standing before the body, "Dan, hurry and get that sample. We got another call." Dan looked back at Janice who was still eying him up. Dan shook his head, "No. Call them back, tell them we're not coming."

Zach blinked, "What?"

Dan threw the equipment to the ground and screamed, "We're not going!" Dan stormed off and screamed back at the Occultist as he walked back to the Ectomobile, "Get the Goddamn sample yourself!"

"What about..." Zach trailed off as he noticed Dan was way too far out of earshot to hear him. He looked at the police detective with a slightly bewildered look on his face. She looked on, watching Dan approach the Ectomobile, "What was that about?"

Later that day, Dan and Zach sat in the Ectomobile which was parked in the alley next to the firehouse. Thunder was starting to roll by as the clouds darkened the sky early in the late day. As it rained, Dan rested his head on the wheel of the SUV. Zach sat in silence wondering why Dan reacted the way he did at the call. The droplets hit the top of the truck, hearing each drop make a ping or thunk on the various equipment attached to the vehicle.

Zach had to break the silence. It was becoming too much for him, "Why? Why couldn't we go on that call?"

After a moment, Dan rose his head and looked out the windshield straight ahead. He was quiet for another moment as he eyes shifted slightly back and forth as the thoughts in his head coagulated. "You ever do something so drastic you feel like you're going to repeat it?" Zach looked over and tried to get where Dan was getting at. After a moment of quiet, Dan spoke again, "I tried to get away from Ghostbusting. After what happened. After Argonne, I realized I just can't do this to myself anymore."

"Dan," the other Ghostbuster started, "I can't understand you..."

"With Lynn. After it all, it got hosed because of her. This whole franchise went to hell because of me and her." "Both you and I know that's not true."

"Right," Dan scuffed, "that's not what you said after Bryan left."

Zach looked confusingly at Dan, "What?"

July 4th, 2007. It was a rainy night. Fireworks are going off at Navy Pier. As the people of the city watched the spectacle, a familiar truck pulls in front of the Cubby Bear, a bar located just across from Wrigley Field. Dan and Zach step out with a small trail of smoke following behind them as they do so. "Dan," Zach said as he quickly stood under the awning of the building, "You sure that trap is gonna hold?"

"Zach, it was a class 2. I'm sure it'll hold for a while," Dan said, slowing making his way to the door. "Why do you do that to yourself?" asks the Occultist. "Do what?" "Stand in the rain like that."

"I can stand a shower," the Engineer replied, "not like it matters."

"Why do you do this to yourself every 4th of July?"

"Because I can," and with that, Dan walked into the doors of the bar. It was a rather empty place at the moment. Seeing everyone was out watching fireworks, at Barbecues, and parties all throughout the city, there was barely anyone in the bar. Both Ghostbusters sat at the bar and Dan ordered the drinks, "Double of Jack, he'll have a Coke."

Zach put his arms on the bar and one of his elbow pads accidentally nudged one of the only other bar patrons in the room. There were at least 6 other people, but this one didn't take a liking to being touched, "Hey!" he yelled at Zach, "Watch where the fuck you're putting those arms!"

"Sorry, sir. I'll be a little more careful," After taking a drink of his Coke, Zach tried to mind his own business as Dan sulked as he always did this day of the year. The patron swiveled around in his chair and started talking to Zach, "You're one of them Ghost hunting fuckers, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Zach replied, "I'm a Ghostbuster." "You know," the man starts, stopping to take his shot of liquor, whatever it was, "you bunch of frauds are the reason decent people can't work." The man was babbling, he was obviously drinking more than his common sense was telling him to, but then again at those alcohol levels common sense no longer existed.

"Hey man," the Occultist began, "business is getting slow for us. It's getting harder and harder to get work." "You think it's hard for you, you scamming piece of shit? I haven't been able to keep a job in 3 years, you don't know fuck about shit!"

Zach just shook his head and went back to his drink as he said aloud, "Yeah, standing on a corner in this part of town, you should get plenty of work." The patron grabbed Zach by the shoulder of his jumpsuit, pulled him around on his stool, and slugged him in the mouth. Dan snapped around to witness the drunk about to punch his friend again when he took his glass of whiskey and threw it in his face. While the man was blinded, the engineer took out his ED Pistol and pistol whipped him across the face knocking him to the floor.

Dan went to check on Zach to see if he was okay to be greeted with a Miller Lite bottle being smashed over his head. Despite being in pain, Dan spun on his heals and kicked the man that hit him with a bottle in the privates. Taking his PKE meter off his belt, he smashed the ghost detection device over the man's head. At that moment, a number of Chicago Police walked into the bar and took notice of the fight.

Chi-Ecto, the 1993 Chevy Blazer the GB:CD used as an Ectomobile, pulled into the parking bay backwards as it always did. The driver side door flew open and Dan stepped out holding the trap in his right hand and an ice pack to his head with his left. A very mean scowl was over his face as he approached the door for the basement. Zach gets out after him and follows after him downstairs to the containment unit.

The whole ride from the police department, Dan was extremely quiet. As the engineer loaded the trap into the unit's cradle so it can be emptied, Zach cleared his throat, "Dan?" He stayed quiet as he closed the door to the unit with the cartridge inside. "Dan, I don't know why that guy went after me, but thanks for... you know, bailing me..."

"You fat-mouthed motherfucker!" Dan bellowed out as he pulled the disposal lever on the unit. As the unit clanked incarcerating the ghost inside, he turned around to face Zach, "If you've just shut your fucking mouth, none of this shit would have happened! Now I got a fucking criminal record because of you!"

"Hey!" Zach screamed back through his split lip, "I'm not the stupid, arrogant, ill-tempered, pity party sulking fuckstake that decided to start throwing punches around because he feels bad about something!"

"I could have taken all those motherfuckers!"

"Yeah, right," Zach quips, "it's not like beating women, you fucking idiot."

Dan stood there eyes wide and mouth open. "What do you mean by that, _Doctor?_" It took a second, but Zach just realized what he just said. Dan started making a face of disgust as he walked past him and back up the stairs to the main floor. "Shit!" was all Zach muttered as he quickly made his way upstairs after Dan.

Dan was in his locker by the service entryway going through all his stuff. He took off his belt, his boots, his elbow pads, and ripped the jumpsuit off. Everything went into the trash can next to his locker as Zach walked up behind him. "Dan, I didn't mean it like that, what I meant was..." "You know, for the last 3 years I kept asking myself, 'was it me, or was it her?' I guess it doesn't matter what I think because everyone else has their own opinion on the matter. Problem is, people believe the lie to be the truth.

"What I did was wrong, but her going off and blowing what happened out of proportion was more wrong. Now I know why everyone left this group. They didn't want to be associated with me any more. It was only a matter of time, you would finally say it to my face." Dan gathered his personal items out of the locker and closed it up. He took out his keys, detached a handful of keys, and threw them to the ground, "Firehouse and Ectomobile keys," he reached into his wallet and pulled out a card, "My GBI ID card," he tossed it like a playing card across the garage, then retrieved one last thing from the wallet. It was a picture of him, Zach, Bryan, Ed, and Lynn standing in front of the firehouse between the Ectomobiles , "And my last shred of dignity." He crumpled the picture up in his hand and dropped it to the ground. "Consider this my official resignation."

Dan walked past Zach, through the main door, and slammed it shut behind him. After a moment, Zach walked up to the trash can and grabbed Dan's flight suit back out. He looked at the name tag embroidered "SHANNON" in red letters. He looked out the door's window to see the silver Volkswagen Dan owned drive away out of the alley and toward the highway. He looked back at the suit in his hands, "Fat mouthed motherfucker. He wasn't wrong about that, at least."

"Everyday I worked for GBI, I felt like I didn't have the respect I once had. It was hard to live with. With everyone at GBI constantly making light on her lie, it was very hard to get any help from any other office in the company" It was raining hard now. The downpour was making the drumming noise on the truck almost impossible to speak softly.

"But," Zach began, "why did you not want to take the call? You came all this way, noticed there was a problem... why stop there?"

"I have a good job now. With AT&T, I don't have to worry about being killed by some 8 foot something or other with an Oedipus Complex. Not to mention it's real, grounded, respected. I'm the best tech in the garage, everyone respects me there. Not like being a Ghostbuster, not as much on-the-spot, not so focused on individuals. In my own little group, I get respect."

"It's that detective, isn't it?" Dan snapped his head around to look at the man sitting in the passenger seat. Zach continued, "You were fine and was actually willing to figure out what was going on until that detective walked up."

"Naw, you're nuts!" Dan exclaimed. "No, man," Zach insisted, "She's under your collar!"

Dan wasn't sure why, but the thought of Detective Janice Bellum did melt all his worries away. Something about her face, her voice, the intensity in her eyes. The shear warmth in them. It was unlike anything he's ever seen before.

But still, that cold look she gave. It was not normal. It was almost scary. When she was talking to him in a joking, friendly matter she had an air of warmth. When Zach said there was another call, something changed in her. It was as though a switch was flipped. He shook his head, "No. Something bothers me about her. Maybe her beauty caught my attention, but that shit hurt me before. Tomorrow, I'm going back to the garage and it's gonna be business as usual."

"But, what about Chicago Division?"

"THERE IS NO CHICAGO DIVISION!" Dan screamed, "Not for me, anyway." Zach recoiled in fear, "Dan, I never..." Dan stepped out of the truck and started walking to his car. Zach got out to follow after him in the rain, "Dan!" The AT&T employee stopped. "I can't run this place without you. You're the only one who knows this place inside and out."

"I'm sorry, Zach. I'm a Premises Technician now, not a Ghostbuster. Good luck figuring this out." As he walked to his car, Dan looked up to the logo hanging between the windows seeing the half lit sign. That Chicago flag running through the GBI logo made him think for a moment. He loved this city, but hung his head low as he finally reached his car. He left in the old VW Jetta that had seen better days to make his way home to Joliet.


	3. Chapter 3

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 3: Right Customer, Wrong Occupation

It was a hot day. It started out so innocent. The Chicago skyline was bright and vibrant, the city streets bustling with activity. Some of the activity was in Millennium park. Children of all ages played at the Crown Fountains nearby the large silver bean otherwise known as the Cloud Gate that sat in the middle of the park. Almost having an out of body experience, someone is standing on top of a building looking over the city. There was a sudden flash of light. There was a collected set of screaming. It got louder and louder...

Janice awoke in her bed in a cold sweat. She sat up quickly knocking over her nightstand in the process. She put her hands together and rested her head in her hands as she tried to slow her racing heart rate. "AT&T building," was all she said as she look at the clock that was now on the floor. It was 4:45 am. There was no way she was gonna get back to sleep after that. Something was wrong. She needed to do something, but wasn't sure what. "What do I do?" she asked herself. After a moment, she nodded her head.

9 am, or at least close to it. Dan put coffee into his coffee maker to get himself started today. It wasn't often Dan got to work the late shift and sleep in a bit, so he decided to get some coffee in him. Still dressed in his PJ's, he took himself a shower while the coffee percolated. He stepped out of the shower and started making his way to his bedroom through his kitchen to find Janice sitting at the kitchen island having a cup of coffee.

Seeing as Dan was only in a towel, he jumped when he saw her sitting there, "Detective Bellum! Jesus Christ, what in fuck's name are you doing here?" "Your door was unlocked and I smelled the coffee," she responded. "Man, don't do that! My heart almost jumped into my sinuses!

"What do you want, anyway?" he asked as he entered his bedroom, "I doubt you came all the way from the Loop to have coffee with me." "You're right, I need to talk to you about the case from yesterday..."

Dan interrupted her, "Sorry, Detective. I'm no longer a Ghostbuster. You need someone to help you, ask Dr. LaVoy." "But you still have the experience of one, right?" she asks.

"Well, yeah, but I turned in my card with them years ago. Technically, I shouldn't even have that Proton Pack in my trunk."

"Really? Based on my records, you're still an active member." Dan threw his door open dressed in full AT&T clothing, "I beg your pardon?"

"Yeah," Janice proceeded to tell him, "Nuclear Regulatory Commission handler's license, DOE license, EPA license... everything."

"Who footed the bill for me?" the elusive Detective picked up her cup of coffee with both hands and smiled sweetly.

"You've been paying for all my licenses this whole time?" Dan was on the phone with Zach, slightly perturbed, "Why in hell's name did you do that?"

"Like I said, I can't run this place without you. I really need your help. After yesterday, the phone's been lighting up like crazy. I need help running this place..."

"Zach, Zach, Zach... At the moment, I can't. I have to go now, my shift is starting in 10 minuets. We'll talk about this later." He ended the call and put his cell phone in his pocket while grabbing his cup of coffee. He tried to drink it fast as Janice walked up with her arms crossed, smile across her face, "Well?"

Dan took the cup away his lips, "'Well', what?" he said with a raspy voice, still trying to get the coffee down his throat. "Dr. LaVoy isn't the only one that needs help. The CPD needs your help, too," Janice explained.

"Look, Detective..." "Please," she interrupted, "call me Jen." "Okay... Jen," he corrected himself as he sat down at his couch to put his work boots on, "I'm about to be late for my shift. I haven't missed a day since I started working there and I'm not about to start today."

Dan opened the back of his work truck while holding a load of boxes. After carefully opening both doors, he dumps all the boxes into the back. As he starts organizing the boxes, another technician walked up from behind him and started talking to him with a Puerto Rican accent, "Hey, Dan." Dan turned around to find a shorter man with a white AT&T shirt made up similar to his. He turned back to his truck as he spoke, "Hey Arod. How's the night shift been since I got bumped in seniority?"

"Not too bad, I did get stuck with that house you were at yesterday. What happened?"

"Some kind of emergency at the garage. Needed my help."

"Would that explain the office door and the icemaker being cooked as well as all the stock cage being trashed?"

"Maybe?"

"Dan, look at me man." Dan turned around and looked at the shorter man, "Was there something weird here yesterday?" Dan looked down for a moment, then turned back to his truck to close up the doors, "Yeah, there was. Company doesn't want me to talk about it."

"Well, I can tell from experience, when something like that happens, you better expect it to happen again."

"What ya mean, Alex?"

"I know you were a Ghostbuster. I believe in the paranormal, too. Whatever it is, it's not over." With that, Alex walked to his truck. "Arod!" Alex turned around to see what Dan had to say, "A short woman with brown hair and Aviator sunglasses talked to you, didn't she?" He looked over to his friend. Alex smiled and nodded his head, "Yesterday after I got to your job." Alex walked back to his truck and got ready to pull out. After the rest of the tucks left, Dan walked back to his car and opened the trunk again. He looked at the pile of parts originally designed over 25 years ago. "I donno."

He had to pick up a job for the south side. He had to pick up a job, period. One job could straighten out the power bill for at least a month. With no driver's license, he knew that there was only one way he was going to get there, "Come on, Ashers. I need you to take me!"

"Zach! I'm getting ready to go back to school! Can't you just take a cab or something?" Zach begged his sister Ashley – once the secretary for the GB:CD – to take him to a job. He had taken all his equipment home on the train to try and pick up as may jobs as possible, but seeing he can't get there alone, he had to get help. "I'll give you 20% of my fee if you just PLEASE take me there!"

From past experience, Ashley knew how much the company charged for removal. She pondered it for a moment as she slowly packed a few of her things to take to college with her. "Alright, make it 25% and I'll take you."

"Oh, thank you!" Zach exclaimed. He ran to the living room and started getting his uniform on. Ashley shook her head as she still couldn't understand his brother's obsession with the dead, but she figured 25% of even $200 is better than nothing. At least it was gas money. "Okay, Orkin man of the dead, where are we going?"

"Plainfield," he responded.

Dan pulled up to the house in his work truck. He wasn't getting a response on the phone, so something was up. Normal procedure for something like this was walk up to the house and knock on the door to see if anyone was there. Seeing it was a repair for the house phone, it was just most likely the phone line not working. He grabbed his work computer and approached the house after throwing his traffic cones out. He looked at the printout again and noticed there was no U-Verse phone on their order. Something didn't add up.

Dan knocked on the door. After a moment, he heard a scream come from inside. He tried to look into the window of the door to be greeted with something smashing through it, narrowly missing his head. "Whoa!" the Technician yelled as he looked around to see what just came at him. It was a crystal bowl. "What the hell?" He stuck his head in the window and called out, "Hello? It's AT&T, here to fix your phone issue? Anyone here?"

Suddenly, out of nowhere a large about of objects started being thrown all over the house. Everyone ran for the front door right where Dan was standing. "Crap, not again!" The people living there threw open the front door and smashed Dan in the face, knocking him over. Dan picked himself off the ground and noticed more objects started flying out of the other windows of the house smashing them. The AT&T tech ran for his life as he noticed he was about to be showered with computer equipment, fine china and crystal, various kid's toys, and lots of furniture pieces. He dived over the hood of his work truck as he heard objects being broken on the side of his truck.

On a hunch, he didn't believe this was a domestic fight seeing both the wife and husband ran out the door and plowed Dan down. As a matter of fact, he noticed the family was on the other side of the truck with him. "What the blue hell is going on?"

"Something is in there!" the woman screamed. "It was as big as a little kid, but it had 4 arms and...and...and it had no legs!" Suddenly there was a large crash on the top of the pick-up truck's cap as a flat screen TV slid off the top of the ladder attached to the roof. Dan and the family dove out of the way of the TV falling on them. Dan looked over the hood of his truck just to have a U-Verse Set Top Box fly out and nail him in the head. "Ow, Goddamnit!" he screamed as he fell over on the ground.

"That fucking does it!" Dan exclaims. He went to the side hatch of his truck and opened it. The husband stood up and looked at Dan, "What are you doing?" "I'm gonna take care of that floating terror!" Dan replied. "We already got someone coming out for that!" "Well, I'm afraid he's gonna lose business. Time to go Old Skool on this thing's ass." From there, Dan pulled his Proton Pack out of the truck.

"Wait," the husband asked, "_You're_ a Ghostbuster, too?"

"What?" was all Dan could ask when a maroon Grand Am pulled up beside Dan's work truck to find Zach stepping out of it. They eyed each other as Zach broke the ice, "I take it this is no normal house call?"

"Dead phone line turned into a dead person. Go figure."

Ashley stepped out of the driver side of the car to get a look at what was going on to find the yard littered with various objects. "What the hell?" was all she got out when part of a sectional couch flew out of the window and headed in her direction. She screamed as she scrambled over the hood of her own car and to the side of Dan's work truck. The couch piece barely missed the car as the sectional smashed into the street. "Oh, shit!" she said as she looked over to Zach, "I didn't realize it was _this_ dangerous!"

"Hindsight's 20/20," Dan quipped, "What a bitch, eh?" An ottoman bounced off the truck and dropped in front of everyone as Dan looked at Zach, "I think I'm gonna need to get this pack on. Give me a hand?"

Zach shook his head, "Sorry, we don't let 'Premises Technicians' bust ghosts. Only Ghostbusters." Dan looked at Zach with a look of disappointment then hung his head. Zach reached back into the Grand Am and pulled a blue flight suit out of the passenger side and handed it to Dan. Dan looked at it. It was the same uniform he threw away. He looked at Zach as Zach spoke, "Well, Ghostbuster? Get your uniform on."

Dan and Zach entered the house, uniformed, packs humming, and wills strong. Zach pulled out his PKE meter as he scanned the house. He saw very little at first. Literally, anything and everything that would normally be in a house was thrown out every window, so there was nothing that even had a PKE trace on it because it was all thrown out. "Man," Dan commented, "imagine what these people did to piss this thing off. Any ideas?"

"From what I gather, it sounds like a Poltergeist, but at this strength it's at a class 4 level. That is not a good sign," the Occultist responded. "Right," Dan added, "Poltergeists are usually class 1s or 2s aren't they?"

"Mostly class 2s,"

"Alright. I'm a little rusty. I can hook up 4 TVs, internet and phone service in 4 hours, but I can't remember how half of the Spengler Classification system works." A silver and black object flies out of from behind both Ghostbusters as it nails Zach in the back of the head. On pure reflex, he dropped the meter, grabbed his thrower, spun around, and shot the object on the ground. Dan jumps as he turns around to see what Zach was shooting, It was an AT&T U-Verse remote. Dan swallows, "Of course, at this rate I'll gladly relearn it to avoid being hit with more AT&T hardware."

As Zach picked up the meter, they heard a giggle echo throughout the house. A little girls voice reverberated throughout the place talking in verse;

Old To Play

Cold Won't Stay

Firefights Help Him Win The Day.

Old To Play

Cold Won't Stay

Firefights Help Him Win The Day...

It kept repeating, more rapidly than the reverberation could keep up with. The rhyme started overlapping itself and became more and more loud as Zach's PKE meter started going wild. Dan unhooked his thrower from his pack as Zach holstered the meter and took his thrower off his belt. The reverberation surrounded them where they couldn't tell where it was coming from. They went back to back looking around them when suddenly from out of the dining room the glass top table threw itself at them. Dan fired as he screamed shattering the table top. Both men covered their faces as they were showered with broken glass.

The verse stopped and it was quite again. Dan uncovered his face and looked around. That was when he noticed it: his breath was turning to steam. "Zach, do you feel that?" Zach stopped holding his arm up and started using his senses to try and figure out when Dan was referring to. After he started seeing his own breath, the Occultist walked to the thermostat to find that the house was at 43 degrees and that the A/C was off.

"A house with this many open windows, no A/C on, and below 50 degrees?" Zach had a look of worry on his face. Dan saw why, "Even typical hauntings in this hot of weather, the whole house doesn't get this cold. This isn't the first time I felt this." Zach suddenly pointed his particle thrower at Dan as he screamed, "DUCK!"

Dan hit the deck just as Zach let loose the particles hitting a faint green specter with two sets of arms and pigtails with the teeth and eyes of an Anglerfish. She was tied up in the particle stream screaming loudly as though the beam was truly hurting her. Dan rolled over to look up at Zach attacking the ghost as he noticed on Zach's belt that the PKE meter was still running and showing readings. They were dropping as though the ghost's PKE was actually dissolving. Melting away.

"Dan, get the trap!" "Don't bother, just keep hitting it!"

"Are you insane?" Zach yelled.

"The PKE levels are dissipating! It's a projected spirit!" Dan got on one knee and started blasting with his thrower. The ghost's screams became more intense as it's ectoplasmic cohesion started breaking down. On Zach's meter, the levels were almost non-existent. In a final howl, the ghost disappeared. "Kill 'em!" Dan commanded. Both of them shut off their streams as Dan stood up. "Okay, this is fucking weird." "Dan, weird is part of this job," chimed Zach.

"That's not that I mean," the engineer stated as he walked out of the house. He walked to the other side of his work truck with Zach in tow. "Excuse me, was there a problem with your U-Verse phone service?" Dan asked the husband. "No, we don't even have house phone service with anyone. It's all cell phones." Dan nodded his head, "Zach, have Ash take you back to GBHQ, I'll meet you there later." "Wait," Zach started, "what about the bill?"

Dan took off his pack and placed it in the back of the truck, "We'll worry about that later, just get back to the firehouse. I have to take care of something." With that, Dan got into the AT&T truck and drove off flying at top speed.

"Dave, you might wanna get a load of this." Dave Barbel got out of his seat at his desk to walk toward the office door where the main garage manager Ron Hutton stood. "What's up, Ronny?" He looked out the door and saw one of the work trucks returning with numerous dents and bangs in one side of the truck. As the truck backed into a parking space next to a VW Jetta, the driver stepped out to be revealed as Dan Shannon wearing a navy blue flight suit pulling a nuclear accelerator out of the back of the truck.

"What in the fuck?" Dave opened the door and approached Dan who was emptying his personal items into his car, "Dan, what in the hell are you doing dressed in that?"

"Dave," Dan started by opening his suit up and pulling an I.D. lanyard off from around his neck, "Here's my AT&T ID," he handed that to him, and then took his keys and took off a chunk of them, "My compound and truck keys," and finally, "My computer, my cell phone, and all my tools are in the truck. Consider this my official resignation." With that, Dan climbed into his car and drove off.

"What do you mean something is drawing you back here?" Zach sat on the couch in the lounge area of the firehouse with his sister as Dan paced back and forth in front of them making an attempt to explain what he means, "Yesterday at the garage, something hopped out of the ice maker and said something about fire consuming the innocent. Then just by coincidence, a customer who's having phone problems even though they don't have home phone service also has a ghost attacking them and you pull up?"

Zach cocked his head to the side and blinked. Dan tried again, "Do you remember what that thing we blasted was saying over and over? Something about Cold leaving and fire fights?"

"Yeah, it was in verse. 'Old To Play, Cold Won't Stay, Firefights Help Him Win The Day.' So?"

"It was cold in the garage and it was cold in the house. The slime samples we got exude heat and cold. The cold happened in the most PKE isolated areas of the Chicagoland area, and it was always somewhere I was at the moment or someplace I was going to be eventually. Something is happening here and something wants a full team of Ghostbusters around to take care of it."

"Wait a minuet," Ashley interjected, "how do you know whatever the hell's doing this is not just doing this to kill you off?" "It would have done it already. It had one chance at the garage to kill me, and it could have made that projected minion stronger to withstand our blast streams and kick our asses, but it didn't."

Dan walked to the window overlooking Cermak Road. "Whatever the hell it is, it wants us to prevent it, it needs us to help it. We need more help if that's the case." "I meant to tell you," Dan turned around to face Zach who was now standing, "I called Dr. Spengler and Dr. Stantz this morning, they're sending us two guys tomorrow afternoon."

"From where?"

"One's from GBI HQ. Physicist and slime expert. One of Dr. Spengler's lab assistants."

"And the other?"

"Wrench jockey out of Franchise Zero with Dr. Stantz. Class A Mechanic. But..." Zach stopped there, but without missing a beat, Dan added, "There's always a, 'but' with these things. Well?"

"He's never operated a Proton Pack." Dan placed his thumb and his forefinger on the bridge of his nose and hung his head down as he close his eyes. "Sorry, Dan, they're both from Chicago and Dr. Spengler's assistant had been putting in a transfer for years for this place. No one was around to accept it. It's the best GBI can spare."


	4. Chapter 4

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 4: The New Stuff

The next day the Ectomobile sat in front of the arrival terminal of O'Hare airport. It had been sitting there for thirty minuets when a Chicago police cruiser pulls up next to the SUV. Dan sat behind the wheel asleep when the Chicago cop knocked on the glass. "Excuse me, sir?" Dan awoke with a start as he looked out his window. He rolled the window down to speak, "Yes?"

The officer looked over the vehicle then looked back at the driver, "Sir, you have to move this..." he looked over the truck again, "...Vehicle. You're only allowed to park here for 15 minuets before we have to tow it." "Officer," Dan explained, "I've been granted emergency and utility parking powers by order of the Chicago Police Paranormal Crimes Unit." Dan pulled out a sheet of paper from his flight suit's sleeve pocket and handed it to the officer. As the policeman looked over the order, Dan continued, "We're waiting for two people who have very sensitive equipment in their possession that we need to load quickly. If they walk out here and I have to do the O'Hare 500 around the arrival terminals, they're gonna be mighty pissed because they're gonna be standing there with their dicks in their hands."

The officer nodded his head, "Okay, Mr. Shannon... I'm assuming you're Mr. Shannon." "The one and only," Dan quipped. The officer handed the sheet back to the engineer as he spoke, "This order seems valid. Just be sure in the future you get those special license plates on before doing something like this again." Dan nodded, "Fair enough." "Have a nice day," the officer said as he walked back to his cruiser. With that, Dan rolled up his window and cranked the A/C.

Inside the terminal, Zach stood holding a sign. Seeing Zach didn't know what the new recruit's names were, Zach just held a sign that had the Chicago Division logo on it. A little girl stopped and pointed at him as she called out to her mother, "Mommy, it's a Ghostbuster!" "Yes, honey," the mother said as she grabbed her hand and started pulling her like she did her luggage, "we don't point and make eye contact!" Zach rolled his eyes and sighed. Now he remembered the downside of this job. Half the populace doesn't believe in ghosts therefore thinking the Ghostbusters were insane. "I hope this changes soon enough."

From the United Airlines gate in the main concourse emerged a crowd of people. Among them was a tall thin man with glasses and spiked blond hair and an average height man wearing a red Bass Pro Shop cap. They carried their carry-ons down the main concourse to the baggage pick up area as they talked, "So in essence, the slime can self perpetuate." "I'm sick of hearing about slime. It makes me feel like a pervert."

"But," the taller man stated, "you are a pervert. You said so yourself."

"I've been stuck on a plane with you for 4 hours and have been stuck with you 3 hours before that. If I have to hear any more about slime, I am gonna..."

"Take it easy! If you exude any more anger, the stuff in my backpack is gonna explode."

They reach the baggage claim as they wait for their luggage to arrive. The belt started moving as the luggage started to unload. A few regular suitcases and duffel bags dropped on the belt as people started to crowd around to retrieve their possessions. There was a sudden "CRASH" as a large olive drab case with a Ghostbusters International logo drops on the belt. People around the belt looked at the case with a sense of tension as it made its way around. People actually backed away as the case approached and passed by. The man in the Bass Pro Shop cap grabbed the case and made an attempt to pull it off the belt, but dropped it back on the belt, "Jesus Christ, what ya got in here? A friggan truck engine?"

The other man helped him pull the case off the belt dropping it on his foot. "AH!"

They walked their way to the claims office to talk to the receptionist, case in tow. The man with glasses talked to the shorter man, "What are doing here?" "We gotta pick up that other case here, remember?"

"What case?"

"The one with Dr. Stantz's new pack design in it?"

"Oh," the taller man stated. As they stood in line, a man in a blue business suit stood at the claims window and was arguing with the woman at the counter, "I'm telling you, you have to get those presentation boards here right the fuck now because if you don't, I will be beating someone's ass!"

The lady behind the counter stood slightly bewildered as she tried to explain, "Sir, we're looking in our system to see if anything was sent somewhere else..." the man cut her off as he screamed at the top of his lungs, "What do you mean it's somewhere else? If I don't have those boards by my 3 o'clock meeting, I will sue your worthless company for all it's worth, and I will hold you responsible!"

As the man screamed, the tall man started feeling a rumbling in his backpack. He realized what was going on, "Oh shit." "What?" the shorter man asked as he saw the look of horror on his companion's face, "Stop him! Calm him down, quick!" "How?" "I donno, tell a joke!"

"Do I look like Krusty the fucking Clown to you?"

"If you don't," the taller man explained, "I have a powderkeg in my backpack that's about to go kaboom! Calm him NOW!"

The man in the red cap walked up to the man in the business suit and cleared his throat, "Sir?" The business man turned around to face him, "What the fuck do you want?" "I'm sure if you just calm down, they can find your stuff. Just give them some time." The business man looked over the both of them and noticed the case with the Ghostbusters logo on it. "Look, you fucking lunatic, unlike some of the people in this world, I work for a living and no lying sack of shit like you is going to tell me what to do!"

The backpack started to vibrate more as the tall man approached the business man and tried his stake at calming him down, "Look, these things happen. They're looking into it now, I'm sure if you give her a minuet, you'll find it was most likely around the corner of the door behind her. Just give her a minuet." "You know what?" the business man asked, "I don't fucking care if it is or not, I want my paperwork NOW!" The backpack shook more. "And as far as I'm concerned, fuck her," the backpack shook more, "fuck this airport," the backpack was shaking violently now as he heard the glass jar inside the bag crack, "AND FUCK YOU!"

As this point the creaking of the glass was a dead give away. The tall man screamed at the top of his lungs as he took the backpack off and threw it to the least concentrated amount of people in the room, "EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" An explosion erupted blowing the backpack to pieces as a slug like creature emerged from where the backpack was.

Zach heard the explosion. His first inclination was to drop the sign, and he did so right before taking off to where the sound emanated from.

In the Ectomobile, Dan awoke again with a start as he heard the explosion. He looked to the computer that was hooked into the detection equipment on the top of the truck to find the PKE levels in the building spiked. "Oh shit!" Dan switched on the truck's emergency lights and ran to the back to grab his Proton Pack.

Behind the claims desk, the two men, the business man and the claims woman hid from the creature that was now destroying the baggage claim area. The business man looked over the counter followed by the others as he asked in a worried voice, "What _is_ that... that... THING?"

"A manifestation of your rage," said the man with the glasses. "Nice going." The beast was looking around for something. It grabbed a piece of luggage from one of the belts and slurped it down as the taller man looked at the case in the line in front of them, "I need to get to that case."

"If that thing sees you..." the shorter man began to state before he was cut off, "It's not going to see me. I found that with negative mood slime, the spirit released from it will search for the person that created it and kill them." Everyone looked at the business man. "No way..." was all the business man in the blue suit said before the man in the red cap grabbed him by the lapels of his suit, "Look, jerk-off, you started this shit, you're bait. Get your ass out there and distract it!"

Zach ducked down behind a souvenir shack as he got a good look at the beast slithering around eating people's luggage. "Whoa, that's different." "Zach!" a voice quietly called out from behind him. He turned to find Dan running up behind him wearing a Proton Pack but also holding another one. "Here," was all he said. Zach put his pack on as Dan took out his PKE meter and started scanning. "Class five. Definitely focused." "On what?" the Occultist asked.

"Based on the ectoplasmic flux pattern it's giving off, it looks... Psychomagnatheric?" "Wait, what?" Zach responded. The both of them looked at each other.

"You said one of them was a..."

"A slime expert."

Dan turned pale, "Aw, nuts."

The man in the suit ran out from behind the desk with his suit jacket off waving it around in the air like a flag screaming like a banshee. The slug-like creature saw him running around doing this and started chasing him. It was a rather slow ghost, so it gave the man ample time to run from it. The tall man behind the desk ran out and started opening up the case in the middle of the line.

Zach and Dan saw the beast coming their way chasing after a man running whipping his suit jacket like a Steelers fan towelette. They stood up as the man screamed at them, "Stop this thing! STOP IT!" Both of them looked at each other as the creature slowly approached them. "You've got to be joking," Dan stated. "Dan," Zach began, "I've never heard of these things working too well on mood slime ghosts."

"Well, we can't stand here with our thumb up our ass! Blast the sumbitch!" Dan got in the middle of the corridor and fired his thrower. The ghost thrashed around as it took the blast of protons. Suddenly the ghost sprouted 3 pairs of legs from it's sides, each arm emerging with a noisy wet "SPLAT". It stood on it's hind legs and stood over the Ghostbuster. Dan twitched as the ghost wound up for a smack, "I wonder if Dave will give me back my job." With that he shut his eyes waiting for the smack.

Zach shot his thrower and was able to catch the beast in a capture stream, but only for a moment. The ghost picked up Zach with his own particle stream and threw him across the floor into one of the belts. Dan snapped out of his uptight state, opened his eyes and witnessed Zach being thrown up the hallway. "You rat bastard!" Dan screamed as he turned the thrower's firepower on full and blasted it. As he did, the ghost whaled as loud as it could before spitting all of it's digested luggage food out on top of the Ghostbuster. Dan hit the ground covered in slime soaked clothes, toiletries, and various other objects including the luggage itself. He was completely incapacitated.

Zach shook off the pain and got back up for another attack. The ghost looked directly at the Occultist as he noticed the mound of clothes moving behind it. A loud bellow was launched from the beasts mouth as he got on all it's legs and charged for the lone Ghostbuster.

Suddenly another particle stream rocked out from behind Zach. He turned around to find a tall guy with glasses wearing a Proton Pack. When he looked at the pack, it wasn't like his. It had a smaller Slime Blower like nozzle on the thrower and was also equipped with a green tank on the power cell side of the pack. "Hey," he yelled out, "you posing for Holy Pictures? Shoot the damn thing!" Zach nodded, spun back around, and fired his stream. While he fired, the man behind him stopped shooting, "You might wanna stand to the side!"

Zach moved back as suddenly a large ball of orange light formed at the end of the other man's particle thrower. As soon as it formed, it launched toward the ghost making contact and throwing it into the front doors of the terminal with a loud, "CRACK!" People screamed and ran away as the beast got up to get it's bearings. The man ran up to the beast and hit a switch on his thrower causing a smaller clear tube to eject from the inside of the Booster tube. From there, the man shot green slime out of the silver thrower nozzle and hosed the large creature down until it started to melt.

"Hey, Mark!" the man called out. The other man that was still behind the claims counter popped his head out from behind the desk, "Yeah?" "Get that Muon Trap!"

The man in the red cap ran to the case in the middle of the claims line and grabbed what appeared to be a Ghost Trap but had more attachments on it than normal. It also had no activation pedal, just the trap itself. Just as the red capped man threw the trap in the open, the tall man with glasses hit a switch again on his thrower and the tube filled with green slime recessed back into the pack and he started firing his Proton Stream again. Zach followed suit and entangled the beast in his stream.

They suspended the ghost, who was now half it's size than it originally was when they started fighting it over the trap. "Up a little more," the man shouted. Zach nodded and helped the man pull the ghost upward slightly. Out of all of it, Zach screamed over the sound of both of their streams, "How do you open the trap?" Without any explanation, the trap's doors opened by themselves and a beam of light shot out like any other trap. The trap's pull was stronger than any trap GB:CD had in their arsenal. As fast as the trap opened, the ghost howled as the trap's doors closed locking the beast inside. The other man walked up and picked up the trap as it beeped. It didn't even smoke, it was just contained. The man in the red cap came over and took the loaded trap from the taller man in the glasses.

"I take it," Zach said while walking up to the other man, "you're our new recruits?"

"Yep," the tall man said as he held his free hand out, "Dr. Aaron Tade. My friends call me Ronny." "Nice to meet you Ronny." Zach responded as he shook his hand. The red capped man held out his hand and started shaking Zach's hand, "Mark Fontanetta. If it's got pistons and rings, I'm the man with the talent." "I'm Dr. Zach LaVoy, and the head of this office is Dan Sha..." that was when Zach realized something, "Shit, Dan!" Dan was still under that pile of slime drenched clothing. He ran in the direction of the pile of clothes. Ronny and Mark followed him to the pile as Zach started to pull clothes off the top of Dan. They all dug until they hit Dan's Proton Pack.

In a sudden jump, Dan pulled himself up out of the slime and took in a deep breath. He still had a pair of panties on his head covering his eyes, "Am I alive?" "Well," Zach started, "you've got party panties on your face. I guess that's a start."

Late night. 444 N. Michigan Ave. A janitor, an old black man wearing headphones, was vacuuming the floor in the office space minding his own business when a hand came down on his shoulder. The Janitor jumped as he turned around to find a man heavily pierced on his face wearing a Man O' War shirt under a black leather jacket. His scraggly hair tied into a ponytail and his beard unkept, his appearance scared the old black man into taking his headphones off and shutting off the vacuum. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was wondering where the crematory is."

The old man looked at his watch and unbuttoned the top buttons on his uniform as he commented, "It's past 9:30, you're not supposed to be here," He panted for a moment, "Is the A/C not working?"

"The crematory. Now." A small bead of sweat ran from his brow down the crest of his nose.

We look at the janitor's face as he unnervingly clears his throat, "7th floor, room 707." All we hear is the man say, "Thanks." There was a sudden burst of sickly orange light as the janitor started screaming.

From Michigan Ave, the floor above the Starbucks lit up like a bonfire then suddenly died down. The people in the coffee shop underneath the light were suddenly greeted with a fire alarm that ran throughout the building.

Dan was down in his electronics lab in the basement looking over the piece of equipment Ronny had brought with him that helped in stopping the ghost in the Airport terminal. He was stumped as he looked over the Proton Pack. He kept scratching his head as Ronny looked over the containment unit with equal curiosity, "So let me get this straight – you and the old physicist that worked here built this completely from recycled parts?"

"You don't need to be so formal," Dan started as he took the thrower of the Proton Pack, "we built it from a pile of garbage picked shit." "What they said at GBI is true," Ronny chuckled, "you're fuckin' MacGyver."

"I'm flattered," Dan stated, turning on the Proton Pack. Ronny turned around and sprinted back to the desk to grab the thrower from Dan's hands. "Whoa!" he shouted, "Don't go turning shit on you're not familiar with!" Dan put his hand's up in a passive stance, "Okay, okay, fair enough. Just tell me how the hell you stopped that thing with this thing while I was under the barf of dirty laundry."

"It was something Dr. Spengler and Dr. Stantz came up with back in 1991. There were other generators and things on the pack, but after field testing they found the other pieces impractical for Ghostbusting purposes when they were able to improve the Boson Dart delivery system."

"Uh..." Dan cocked his head to the side and rose an eyebrow, "Can you run they by me again, chief?"

"Sorry," Ronny started with a grin, "I tend to get a little giddy when I explain this stuff to people. What I mean is, Dr. Spengler spent the last 20 years improving the Boson Dart system so it can be used safely with all the GBI franchises when they got started. They weren't sure this stuff was safe even after their field test in '91, so they waited until 2 years ago to start implementing not only the Boson Dart system, but also the PDS on all packs."

"PDS? I take it that's the mini-Slime Blower on the side of the pack?"

"Yeah," Ronny said, placing the thrower back on the pack, "the slime they used back then was a mixture of base ectoplasm, mood slime from the Vigo incident, and fungi from Dr. Spengler's collection. During that time I was trying to make it possible for the slime to self perpetuate faster and give off stronger positive psychomagnatheric charges thus making... Dan?"

Dan's eyes had glassed over as he stared off into space. Ronny snapped his fingers into his ears making the engineer jump off his stool and onto the floor. Ronny looked over the engineer on the floor as he laughed. Dan looked up from the ground and grumbled, "That wasn't funny, wiseass." Right at that moment, the alarm went off meaning a call had come in.

In the Garage bay of the firehouse, Mark had his head under the hood of the SUV as the sounds of a ratchet emanated from the engine compartment of the vehicle. The man under the hood wasn't bothered by the sound of the alarm going off as he slowly poked his head from under the truck's hood to look at Zach's sister at the desk, "What's the call?"

"Oh no, I wait until every one of you nuts gets to my desk."

"Well, I'd like to know now so I know how urgent I need to get this thing buttoned up."

"Chicago Police call. Urgent enough?" Ashley said with a dry tone of voice.


	5. Chapter 5

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 5: Increased Activity

Detective Bellum stood next to her police cruiser with the radio in her hand talking to dispatch when the Chicago Division's Ectomobile pulled up, low moan siren and all. Dan sat in the passenger seat as Mark drove, "I have to admit, Mark," Dan began, "you got good ol' Chi back up and runnin'. She's purrin' like a kitten."

"Yeah, dispatch. Cancel that order. My boys just arrived." Janice Bellum threw the radio mic back into her car and closed the door. She started walking toward the Ectomobile as Mark quipped, "Speaking of pussy..." that comment ended as fast as it started with Dan slapping him in the back of the head, "Get your fucking head out of the gutter and get out." Everyone stepped out of the truck as the detective walked straight to Dan.

"Dan, we have another one like in the Water Maintenance road. Alarm was tripped on the 3rd floor." "Was there a generous amount of slime like the last victim?" Dan asked.

"Yes. We need to..." she stopped as she noticed the other two people standing around the truck she's never seen before, "Who are they?"

"'They,' who?" Dan asked. He stopped and looked behind him to remember there were two new members on the team, "OH! Where are my senses? Dr. Aaron Tade, Mark Fontanetta, new members of GB:CD," Dan put forth his hand before the men behind him respectfully, then turned to put forth his hand toward the detective, "Detective Janice Bellum, CPD Paranormal Crimes Unit," The both of them walked forth and shook each others hands. "Gentlemen," Janice started, "May we take a gander inside?"

Zach already had a PKE meter out and was getting a reading, "Guys?" everyone stopped walking toward the building to hear Zach out, "Whatever it is, it's still here. Get the packs."

Inside the building, the rank smell of burnt flesh was stronger than under Lower Wacker Drive. Everyone started coughing as the smell got stronger. "Oh, man!" Mark exclaimed, "What the hell is that?" A couple of CSI examiners walked up and handed everyone respirators. Everyone put them on as they approached the center of the mess. A set of desks were charred upon first glance just to find another dead and burnt body.

"Good God," Ronny stated, "What in the hell happened?" "I don't know," Dan returned, "That's what you're going to find out."

"Dan," Zach called out, "The PKE levels are higher than they were before. I think we need to get another sample." "Agreed," Dan nodded his head with his response, "You and Ronny get the collector and as much data on this shit as you can while me and Mark scout the area with Detective Bellum." Dan walked toward the elevator bank and pressed the button to go up to find the light wasn't lighting. "Um, Dan?" Dan looked at the detective, "Fire alarm? Elevators are disabled. Remember the stairs coming up here?" Dan groaned, "Do we have to take the stairs?"

As they ascended the stairs, Mark and Dan had a winded conversation, "Dan, I shouldn't even have this thing on. I'm not licensed." "You're going to be. That's what we're doing right now. You wanna be able to wear a GB:CD logo patch, you have to be licensed to handle one of those suckers. Ever seen one of them used before?"

"Yeah, Ray showed me how to use it, but I never _actually_ used it."

"Oh, you won't forget this experience. First time firing a particle thrower is one hell of an exhilarating experience." The detective was standing at the top of the landing with her hands on her hips. "You know," she quipped, "I met fat-assed New York cops that were faster than you."

"Hey," Dan quipped back, "how about you wear a 50 pound nuclear accelerator on your back and see how fast _you_ move." Right then Dan's meter beeped and hummed. He took the meter off his belt and started scanning around, "Mark, have you ever used a PKE meter?"

"No," Mark answered. With that, Dan handed him the meter as he coached him, "Okay, when the bars are green, it means cold trail. When the bars are red, the beasty is close. If it gets red and the wings go all the way up, firing up your pack is a smart idea." Mark nodded as Dan grabbed his ecto-goggles and placed them on his head. "If the wings do go up and red, don't be a hero, call me out, got it?"

They continued their trek up the stairs as the meter's wings rose with green bars. "Dan, the trail looks like it ends here... I think." Dan lowered his goggles and saw an invisible trail of ectoplasm on the door. "Jen!" Dan called out. Janice, who was up a flight, stopped and turned around to look at the two Ghostbusters on the stairs. Dan nodded toward the door leading to the 7th floor. She walked back down and pulled her gun out getting ready to enter the floor. She grabbed the handle and quickly pulled it away. "Shit!" she exclaimed as put her hand under her arm, "That sucker is hot!"

Dan put his chemical gloves on and grasped the door handle. He felt the warmth radiating from the metal. He opened the door as Janice walked in first, pistol ahead of her. The room was dark upon entering. The detective pulled a small tactical light from her belt, turned it on, and rested her pistol hand on top of her light hand. Dan entered behind her with his goggles still down. The Auto IR mode of the goggles kicked in as Dan scanned the room. It was a large room filled with a bank of stainless steel doors on one side, and three machines on the other side of the room.

"What the hell is this place?" Mark asked as he walked into the room. "It looks like a morgue," Dan commented.

"It's a Crematorium," Janice concluded, "They take people's corpses and burn them..." "I know what a crematorium is, Jen," Dan shot back, "I just didn't know they had them off Michigan Avenue." "Above a Starbucks, of all places," added Mark as he switched on the angle head flashlight on the strap of the pack.

"Man," the engineer remarked, "this place is an ectoplasmic disaster area. It looks like that thing was farting around with one of the cremation ovens." As Dan approached the oven, his goggles' IR sensors showed it was glowing like a Christmas tree set on fire. "Mark, you getting a reading?" "All green." Dan inched closer to the oven as he put his hand on the handle. Janice came up behind him as he unlatched the door to the oven.

The lights on Mark's meter suddenly went red as the wings rose all the way up, "Dan!" Before Dan could turn around to acknowledge him, the door to the oven flew open and knocked Dan backwards into Janice. Dan rolled off the detective as he gripped his chest in pain trying to regain his breath. Something came out of the oven. It was a human corpse engulfed in flames. Mark dropped the meter and unhooked the neutrona wand and turned on his pack, "Shit how the fuck do I do this again?"

Bellum got her senses back as she started shooting the corpse with her pistol while lying on the floor. It slowed the beast down, but it didn't stop it. Mark still tried to activate the thrower itself, but found the fired corpse was quickly approaching. Mark dropped the thrower and grabbed a fire extinguisher on the wall behind him and hosed the thing down. The cold of the CO2 was acting like it was hurting it. Dan coughed as he finally got his breath back, yanking his goggles off his head. He looked at the meter Mark dropped and he noticed the readings on the meter were weaker than the readings with his goggles.

Mark picked up his thrower and tried to activate the thrower again. Dan called out, "Mark, right bottom switch, then the push button!" The beast regained it's senses as Janice grabbed her radio, "All units, converge on 7th floor. All units!" Mark finally managed to turn on the thrower and hit the blaster trigger. The beam shot out as it struck the beast completely vaporizing it's outer husk. In it's place a fiery spirit lingered behind. Mark kept blasting it with the pack as Dan got up and activated his own thrower. For some reason, the ghost was resisting the streams.

"What the hell?" was all Dan got when suddenly he heard the high pitched whirling sound started emitting from his pack. "Mark! Shut down your pack! NOW!" Too late, a sudden backlash shot back through the beams and nailed both Ghostbusters throwing them into the walls. The ghost laughed and disappeared as both Dan and Mark tried to stand up with extreme difficulty.

A bunch of Chicago police officers ran into the room waving guns about as they locate both Ghostbusters and the police detective. Behind all the uniforms was Zach and Ronny, panting heavily from running up the stairs with their Proton Packs on. "Check on the Ghostbusters!" Bellum cried out.

By an EMT outside, Dan and Mark sat on one of the Starbucks benches as paramedics checked them over. Ronny and Zach stood by making sure they were okay and to ask a few questions, "How did it happen?" "I donno," Dan told Ronny, "we were firing at the thing not crossing streams when I heard the packs start to labor as though TPR was happening."

"TPR?" Mark asked. Zach stepped in with an answer to that, "Short for Total Protonic Reversal. Destabilization of the atoms in your body if you cross particle streams too long with enough streams."

"Are you alright at least?" Ronny asked curiously. "Yeah," Dan answered, "just got that feeling of pins and needles all over me still. How 'bout you Mark?" "Oh, like sitting on a bunch of roofing nails. Does this mean I'm licensed to handle a Proton Pack?"

"I don't think so," Dan responded as an EMT checked his pulse in which he pulled his arm away in a jolt, "Ow, jerk-off! Don't touch me!" he turned back to Mark, "After that, we need to teach you the finer points of particle slinging. TPR is serious and stream crossing is dangerous. What you did in there was not a good thing..."

Dan was cut off by Ronny, "I don't think he's to blame, Dan." "Why?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but I think the spirit you tried to hit was a projected spirit, but instead of being destabilized like the one you guys busted before we got here, it got stronger."

"Stronger?" Mark asked.

"Yeah," Ronny said as he pulled a meter from his belt. He hit the "Review" switch in the meter as he played back the last recording of readings, "Right before we heard an explosion upstairs and Detective Bellum calling for everyone, there was a fall in PKE and then a huge spike right before we heard the TPR taking place."

"Meaning?" Dan asked leaning in with an eyebrow raised.

"This is not a regular fire demon. It reacted opposite from the ghost you and Zach hit yesterday."

"Wait, demon?"

Ronny put his hand on his upper lip and rubbed as he paced back toward the street then back, "I need to run more tests, but until then expect a huge PKE surge to hit the city."

"What do you mean by huge?"

Day time, the alarm rings at the Chinatown station as one of the doors opens. The Ectomobile bolts out of the garage, tires screeching and low moan siren blaring. Passer-bys stop and look at the truck as it passes them. One man watched the truck pass as the cigarette he was trying to light up falls out of his mouth which is open in awe.

The Ectomobile stops at a Barnes and Noble store, everyone exits the vehicle. Inside a ghost is throwing books around at all the patrons and browsers alike. Dan, Zach, Mark and Ronny are lined up in front of the ghost, packs activated. "Now!" Dan commands as everyone fires their streams and wrangles the beast. The Ghost fights as hard as it can thrashing against the beams. Mark deploys a Muon Trap and the cone opens, sucking the ghoul in. The doors close.

Mark and Ronny are talking while standing in the back of Chi-Ecto which Ronny having a cigarette. Dan walks by and taps Ronny on the shoulder to get in. Ronny and Mark close the back hatch on the truck.

The Ghostbusters are traveling southbound down I-90/I-94 going in access to 90 miles per hour heading to the next job.

Outside the old Marshall Fields & Co building, the Ghostbusters are strapping on their equipment. Buckles click, straps grow taut, doodads clipped in place on belt and straps all over. They head into the Macy's to to find a little boy handing over the side of a rail on one of the upper floors. Ronny activates his slime blower and uses a slime tether to hold the kid up as the ghost that pushed him over flies down and slams into Zach head first, knocking him down. Mark picks Zach up as Dan and Ronny blast the ghost from behind it. Dan throws out a trap as Mark and Zach join in. The trap opens and sucks the ghost inside.

Zach and Dan are collecting slime samples from the side of a building and Dan gets some of it on his hands. He tries to get it off by flinging it off his hands and it hit's Zach in the face. Zach scoops slime with his hand the throws it in Dan's face. Dan and Zach suddenly start going for each other's necks and as both fall over fighting.

The Ectomobile speeds from place to place in the city, from the Chicago Water Tower Place, to the Chicago Board of Trade building, to Navy Pier, to Wrigley Field.

In the middle of Wrigley's baseball diamond, a possessed auto-pitch machine is randomly shooting baseballs at patrons in the stands and the Cubs' players as Ronny hoses the device down. The ghost flies out and Zach and Mark slam it into a trap placed by Dan. Another ghost flies out of the stands and charges for an attack when Dan grabs and slams the ghost into the trap by himself. Everyone looks at him while a grin comes across his face.

A Golem made of sculptures stands in the middle of the Grand Staircase of the Art Institute of Of Chicago having chunks of itself blasted from all side as Dan and Mark shoot from up top, Zach stands on the ground floor blasting away, and Ronny stood literally next to the beast. The pieces of the beast blasts apart to reveal a ghost slightly stunned. Without missing a beat, Ronny deploys a trap and shoots the ghost again followed by the others. The trap opens but this ghost doesn't go down easy. It fights its way away from the trap, but in a sudden slam, the ghost goes down...

A loaded smoking trap drops into the back of the truck.

The Ectomobile backs into the firehouse slowly as the street lights turn on along Cermak. As the door closes, everyone piles out of the truck as though they had lead in their boots. As Dan walked by the receptionist desk with a hand full of loaded traps to head down to the Containment Unit, Ashely called out to him, "Dan, we got 3 mor..." "Ash," Dan interrupted her, "Call them back and tell them we're not coming and that we're holding all calls until tomorrow."

"Why?" She asked.

"If we go out there, they're gonna have to not only deal with their personal ghosts, they're gonna be dealing with four dead Ghostbusters, too. Make the calls..." He continued his way down to the basement when he stopped and turned back to her, "And turn down the damn A/C. This isn't a meat locker, you know." She picked up the phone, but stopped and turned before she called anyone, "Oh, and Detective Bellum's in your lab." Dan's shoulder's slumped as he grabbed the basement door handle with his free hand. Ashley smirked a bit as she dialed the phone.

In the basement, Janice looked over the parts on the counter as she heard rubber on metal clanking of boots on stairs. She saw Dan emerge from the stairwell with a handful of traps. He stopped when he saw her sitting there on his bench stool, "Detective."

"Dan," she acknowledged back, "I told you to call me Jen." "Sorry," the engineer quipped as he approached the Containment Unit. She saw the dark circles under his eyes as he walked to the large green device to empty the traps, "You look terrible." "I feel terrible. Reminds me of when AT&T sent me to Detroit for a month." As he emptied the traps, Janice stood up and walked up to him to watch him remove the empty trap cartridge to load another full trap into the Unit's cradle.

Dan felt her presence behind him, "Do you mind?" "Don't be such a crabass," she remarked, "I just wanna see how this is done."

"I take it GBI Internal Affairs gave you the power to be down here _to_ watch this?"

"Well, yeah, but..." she turned around as she approached his bench, "I kinda thought you... well..." "Is this an official Chicago Police visit?" Dan asked as he pulled the disposal lever on the unit.

"No, it isn't I'm afraid," she replied. Dan turned around with a half-tired smile on his face as he looked at her, "So, now that we established this is a social call, what's up?"

"Well, I want to know the famous Dan Shannon up close. In some odd way, when I was still in homicide, I felt a connection to the dead. In a few instances, I actually saw things that allowed me to see the cases close rather quickly. I always wondered if you saw something like that yourself."

Dan cocked an eyebrow and crossed his arms as he leaned against the Containment Unit, "To be honest, there isn't anything I've seen that's outside of 'Spectacularly Insane'. Aside of aliens landing, it's safe to say there's nothing much to tell other than I'm daft to taking this job and starting this franchise."

"But," Janice said as she turned and approached Dan a little, "what made you start believing the paranormal?" They made eye contact. Her eyes were extremely warm and inviting, but at the same time something was in them, watching in a detached way. Dan answered, "I guess even though having a piece of porcelain thrown at me in a haunted house put a firm anchor in it, I actually first saw and made contact with it shortly after my grandfather died."

Janice approached closer to Dan, "Why, did you see him?" "No, not exactly. He came to me in a dream and told me no matter what, I'll be alright. Thing about that dream, it felt so real. It's really burned into my memory, almost literally." "What happened?" Janice asked attentively.

"It was like a nightmare at first," the engineer began, "I was standing in the middle of a road in a city. Wasn't sure if it was Chicago or not, but suddenly there was this really bright light. A huge wave of energy, fire – something like that – came rushing at me, but the fire didn't burn me. I witnessed the buildings vaporize as it approached. When the fire came to me, I was suddenly flying."

Dan pushed off the Containment Unit's side and walked forward a bit as he started using his hands to somewhat illustrate his words, "I looked down and saw the ground many miles below me, witnessing the fired mess I was flying away from. I looked up to see a large light above me shining brighter than the ball of fire that passed below me. I closed my eyes, then opened them to find I stopped. My grandfather was sitting in on a bench stool." He gestured behind Janice, "The same one sitting at my work bench."

Janice looked behind her to get a better look at the old stool. The wood that made up the seat was warn and smoothed over with many burn marks and drips of paint on it. The metal frame pitted from ware and what looked like smelting. "He was a pipefitter for the local 597. He always sat in the garage and worked on things on that stool. Making stainless steel watch bands. He sat on that stool and looked over at me. He stood up and walked over to me. He knelt down in front of me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, 'Danny, you're going to be alright. No matter what happens, I'm here.' After that, I woke up.

"After that," he continued, "I kinda got into it in hopes I could see him again. So many things happened since he left us that I wanted to ask his advice about." "How long ago?" Janice asked. "Fourteen years, this past March."

"I guess it is true."

"What?"

"Everything the fire department ever said about you was bullshit." Dan suddenly felt his heart race. He almost immediately knew what Janice was talking about. "You mean..." Dan was quickly cut off, "She started the rumors, yes, but she transferred out of Chicago because she was found to be a compulsive liar. Lied on one of her arson reports saying the boy she found was dead before they arrived only to find the boy was alive upon arrival. She tried to cover it up to save her ass and failed."

"Who the hell found that out?" Dan asked.

"Me," Janice replied.

Dan blinked in shock, "How?"

"The boy told me himself."

Dan's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped when he heard that. "I launched the investigation and got her in trouble. Since then, she was no longer allowed in Chicago city limits for purposes of a municipal nature except civil functions. When I first met you, I didn't believe what they said."

"Why, most of the Chicago Fire Department did, as well as a good portion of Ghostbusters International. Why you of all people?" Dan asked with an almost stern voice.

Janice approached him closer, "Because I can see evil. It's hard to explain. I see a lot of anger and disappointment in your eyes, but I feel no evil in you." They locked eyes again as Dan inched closer to her. Her brown eyes, his green eyes. The warmth. They inched closer as she whispered, "No evil within you," they closed those eyes as they almost touched lips...

"Dan!" a voice rang out from the stairs as Mark came rushing down. Dan and Janice broke stance and turned away from each other as Mark reached the bottom of the staircase, "Dan... Oh," Mark noticed the detective standing in the middle of the room with Dan, "Hey, Detective, didn't know you were here," "What is it, Mark?" Dan snapped.

"Ronny needs to see you upstairs. He found something out with the slime."

Janice bit her lower lip for a second, "You better go check that out."

"Yeah," Dan responded.

"I'll show myself out. We'll talk later, Mr. Shannon." Dan sighed after that. She walked upstairs and upon the door shutting Dan walked up to Mark and grabbed him by the back of his Dickie's work shirt to drag him to the stairs, "I am gonna kick your ass, you know that?" "How was I supposed to know?" Mark asked in his defense.

Upstairs in the Bio-Chem-Ecto lab, Dan, Mark and Zach sat around the long metal table that sat in the room ."I figured out why your packs went into TPR the other night," Ronny stated. He was wearing a lab coat with a pair of chemical gloves handling a beaker full of the orange color slime he removed from the lab's refrigerator . "The slime is somehow triggered by hyper-acceleration."

"Wait a second," Zach interjected, "didn't we collect more than that?" "You did," Ronny said as he put the glass labware down on the table in the middle of the room, "When you got the sample, you did the same thing you would do in any other situation; you put the slime in the fridge. That was my first clue."

"Ronny, some of us are not thinking as fast as you," Dan quipped, "Me especially. Could you please fill in the gaps here?"

"Oh..." Ronny replied sheepishly, "Sorry. What I mean is, the slime destabilized in the cold of the fridge. Now, look at the sample of the other slime Dan got from the AT&T garage," he went back to the refrigerator and went into the freezer. There were two large beakers – both twice the size of the one Ronny put on the table – filled with a blue slime. He grabbed one of them and put it beside the other beaker. "Where the hell did all _that_ come from? I barely got enough to fill a sandwich container!" Dan exclaimed.

Ronny pulled out a cigarette from his lab coat pocket and put it in his mouth as he talked, "From what I can tell, these slimes are effected by the Laws of Thermodynamics. Thing is, it's not binding directly to the laws. What that means is," he takes the cigarette out of his mouth, "these slimes are feeding on the hyper acceleration and hypo acceleration of particles."

Everyone stared at him blankly. "Okay," he started again, "think of it like this..." He took out his lighter from the same pocket, took one of his gloves off, and put the lighter in that very hand, "Inside this lighter is a fluid. In it's rest state, meaning outside this lighter, it's a gas. Spin the wheel and let the sparks from the flint fly," he lit the lighter letting the flame burn, "the molecules in the gas become excited from the hyper accelerator, in this case the flint sparks, igniting the gas into a flame. From there, the flame keeps itself alight." He put the cigarette back in his mouth and used the lit lighter to light it.

Keeping the lighter lit, Ronny placed the flame on top of the orange slime. The slime suddenly started to overflow from the beaker and ran on top of the table, smoking as it did. Everyone jumped back as the slime then caught itself on fire and started to grow on it's own. Ronny grabbed a nearby CO2 fire extinguisher and put the fire out with a calm expression on his face.

"Same thing happened when I put a small amount of liquid nitrogen into the blue slime." "Ronny," Dan said trying to keep his calm, "if you ever do that without a warning again, you're on the first flight back to New York."

"Sorry," the physicist said again, "but this shows that with this slime in the area, there's more and more of a possibility things are going to get hotter as this stuff feeds off heat. Worse yet, the thing that produced it may be able to hyper accelerate particles until they ignite."

Dan paced back and forth for a minuet as he tried to figure out what Ronny was saying, "So what you're saying is, both these things – the hyper accelerator and the hypo accelerator – can actually heat or freeze? Like, change the state of matter itself?" "Exactly."

"But what about when me and Dan crossed streams?" Mark asked.

"Since the thing you were hitting was a controlled apparition – a projected spirit – it had the same properties as the host specter. Since the packs accelerate the alpha and beta decays of the radioactive fuel cells making the particle streams we use to capture negative ectoplasmic entities, even though this thing is negatively charged it's particles are accelerated faster than our own packs are able to accelerate to.

"It's simple," Ronny took another drag of his cigarette. As he exhaled he finished his sentence, "your beams passed right through him and struck each other head-on."

Zach finally broke his silence, "If it was projected, does that mean maybe the beast that caused it has a higher classification reading?" "That was always the case with these things," Dan answered.

"Think about it, it's possible it's corporeal, so we might be able to hit this thing if we alter the packs after hitting it with some kind of heat dissipation charm. That might knock it on it's ass." "Well," Mark interjected, "I noticed hitting it with a CO2 fire extinguisher did some damage. When I couldn't get my pack working, I hit it with that."

"I hate to break it to ya, guys," Dan started, "those all _might_ work, but based on what's going on, we might need to do a little more research on both our beasties to figure out what they are, where they came from, and how they can be defeated. In the history of science, it's always been easier to heat something than it was to cool it. Basic second grade science class shit."

"Agreed," says Ronny as he extinguishes his cigarette in the lab sink, "I say tomorrow, you and I take care of those three most-likely-gonna-be-pissed-off customers while Zach and Mark do a little background on these things. What ya think, Dan?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," the engineer shot back, "While you're at it, map the hot spots in the city using the park districts' National Weather Service equipment uplinks. Call Bryan, he might be able to help seeing he's a Meteorologist now."

Zach scratched his head, "But he's in St. Paul, isn't he?" "He has authorization to shit we can't get to. He can access the database from his workstation for any place in the country."


	6. Chapter 6

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 6: The Critic's Case/Janice

"Hey, I haven't seen my folks in a while, maybe we can cruise by their house after we're done here." Dan was driving the Ectomobile to Naperville to take care of the last customer that was told to hold off on service the night before. Ronny got excited in the passenger seat simply because the last customer's house was one town over from his old stomping grounds.

"Do they approve of you being a Ghostbuster?" the engineer asked. "I got kind of a mixed review on that one," Ronny stated, "My mom kinda thought I was going to be a Martial Arts instructor when I was in my teens, but went this route instead. Everyone else like my brothers and everyone... Some thought it was cool, some thought it was insane. How about you?"

"My brother was one of my worst critics when it came to that. My old man didn't give a shit, and my mom thought it was really cool. But my brother... Man, was he a fucking asshole about it."

"Military man?" Ronny asked.

"Sorta. He's in the Marine reserves and a Computer IT for Tinley Park. Bad thing about him is he didn't like me being a Ghostbuster, but on the same token, he didn't like the me-becoming-a-phone-man thing, either."

Ronny lit a cigarette and rolled down the window, "I haven't even told them I came back yet, they're gonna get one hell of a surprise when they see me."

At the house, the Ectomobile came to a stop in the street. As both Ghostbusters got themselves ready in the back of the truck, Dan pulled a sheet of paper out of his front jumpsuit pocket, "Okay, the customer's name is a Mr. N. Critic. He's been complaining that every time he goes to make an online video, weird shit happens constantly."

"That's it?" Ronny asked as he extinguished his cigarette on the ground while loading a Muon Trap on his belt. "Yeah, said he tried calling GB:CD a few times to find our office was closed," Dan grabbed Ronny's Proton Pack from the equipment rack and helped him into it, "That, or he tried to call when Zach hadn't paid the phone bill for a year. I forget." Ronny grabbed Dan's pack and helped him in, "You want the meter, or the goggles?" "I'll take the goggles this time," Ronny reached in and grabbed the PKE meter and Dan took the goggles off a hanging rack hanging above the packs. After Dan secured the goggles on his head, they walked to the door.

"Seriously though," Ronny added, "weird shit while doing an internet video? Sounds like a class A douchebag with no life."

"As long as he pays the bill, who the hell cares?" Dan finished as he rang the doorbell.

At a desk, a man wearing glasses, a black cap, a suit jacket and a red tie over a plain white tee shirt look straight head with his hands crossed, "Hello, I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it..." the doorbell rang. The man threw up his hands and rolled his eyes, "Ugh, who the hell can that be?" He got out of his desk chair and walked to the front door.

He opened the door to find two men – A shorter man wearing a navy blue flight suit with a pair of what looked like night vision goggles on his head and a taller man wearing a pair of blue EMT pants and a blue short sleeve button up – standing on his front stoop. They introduced themselves, "Mr. Critic, I'm Dan Shannon, this is Dr. Aaron Tade, we're with Ghostbusters: Chicago Division. You made a call last ni..."

Before Dan could finish, the man burst into a rage at them, "Where the hell have you assholes been, it's been a total Shitstorm in this place!" He stopped to notice there were no other people with them, "There's only two of you?"

"Yeah," Dan commented, "The other guys needed to handle another case. May we step inside?" The man grunted and stood aside of the door. The man took a seat on the couch as the two men with particle accelerators stood before him, "Okay, according to our worksheet, you've been having some assaults against you while filming an online show, is that right?"

"Assaults. That's putting it mildly! Half the crap I've put up with in the last 3 years has been a goddamn never ending cascade of pure shit and splooge mixed in a Margareta blender!" the man shouted. Dan and Ronny looked at each other, "That's rather graphic," Ronny said. Dan fluttered his eyes as he turned back to the man that called himself the Critic, "Okay then, could you be a little more specific?"

"Let me see, Casper crushed my nuts and I had a Teddy Ruxpin try to kill me! Is that specific enough for ya?"

"Ronny, run a PKE," Dan said dishearteningly. "On it." Ronny walks off around the house as Dan stayed with the oddly dressed man, "Forgive me in saying, but that is really out there. Are you sure Casper was specifically the one that crushed your nuts?" The man looked up with a really sour face about to say something when Ronny runs back into the room with the meter in his hands going insane, "Dan, this whole house is friggan glowing with activity!"

"What was it exactly you were calling about _last night_?" Dan asked. Suddenly, out of the bedroom door popped a tan jumpsuit with two Ghostbuster logos on it wearing a Proton Pack, walking completely on it's own. As the suit approached a sickly green glow started to form inside the suit. It looked like the Critic, but from out of the orifices and eyes of it's body, smoke bellowed out. The Critic stood up and pointed, "T-T-T-That!"

"Ronny," Dan's voice quivered, "what the fuck is that?" Before the physicist could answer, a small teddy bear climbed over the top of the specter. It was a Teddy Ruxpin Doll. Music started playing and the doll spoke, "Come Dream with me Tonight..." The doll hopped down and approached the two Ghostbusters with the ghostly figure of the customer following behind him. The doll started talking, "I have been waiting for you, Daniel Patrick Shannon and Aaron Arthur Tade. I see you met my friend the Nostalgia Critic."

"Dude," Ronny commented, "I'd seen some fucked up shit, and trust me a Teddy Ruxpin by itself was enough, but this is fucking creepy!" Dan and Ronny armed their Proton Packs. The figure of the Critic quickly drew it's pack's thrower and armed it as the Teddy Ruxpin spoke in it's creepy sweet demeanor, "Me and the Critic have unfinished business. He said some mean things about me in a review some time ago and unfortunately escaped my attempt to kill him. I can't have you getting in our way, Ghostbusters: Chicago Division."

The Critic's ectoplasmic double fired a stream of energy from it's particle thrower at Dan as he dodged to the ground. "Ronny, get the Critic out of here, I'll take care of this creepy bear bastard!" Ronny fired a Boson Dart at the Critic's double getting it's attention. It slowly started chasing him and the Critic into another room.

The doll threw itself at Dan who was still on the floor. Without missing a beat, Dan shot the bear in the torso and knocked it across the room. The engineer quickly stood up as he started looking around for where the doll went. He lowered the goggles on his head over his eyes to get a better view of where it could be hiding.

Dan walked around and scanned when something behind him smashed on a table. He spun on his heels and found a glass vase on a table just broke. He raised his thrower and turned back around to look about the room again. As Dan scanned, a small, brown, plush hand reached up to the table and grabbed a shard of the broken vase.

In the kitchen, Ronny and the Critic were ducked down behind a set of counters. "What is that thing?" the Critic spouted out. "I think the first question that needs to be answered is why do you have a Ghostbusters International Trainee uniform and one of our Home Ecto-Defense Packs?" "Like I said to your friend, Casper assaulted my testicles! For some reason when I do reviews, shit just starts happening to me. Casper the Movie came up for a review and I had to defend myself from the little shithead."

"How did you beat him, exactly?

"I followed him to a hotel and my pack ran out of power. He was hovering over a pool and I just grabbed him and pulled him down into the water. He just... Vanished!"

Ronny slammed his palm into his face, "You seminifirous tablodial buttnoid! The chlorine in the pool must of distilled his ectoplasmic structure then became attached to your suit! When was the last time you washed it?"

"Never?" A blast of ectoplasm shot out and blasted part of the counter top off blowing it into sawdust, showering both the Ghostbuster and his customer with shavings. They looked up to find the Critic's Ecto-Clone standing over them. It spoke with a reverberated monotone version of the Critic's voice, "Hello, I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it..." It pointed it's thrower at them, "Because you'll no longer be around to do so."

Ronny kicked the clone's legs out from under him and hopped to his feet. He fired a stream at it and it caused it to howl in anger. It turned over and shot Ronny in the chest. The physicist was sent flying into the refrigerator and as all the magnets fell off the fridge, he gripped his chest in pain trying to breathe. The Clone approached Ronny with it's thrower ready to fire another ecto blast when the sound of a gun being cocked was heard behind it, "GHOOOOOOST!" was what the Critic screamed as he shot a 9mm pistol at it. The bullets just went through the suit and didn't make a dent in it.

The Ecto-Clone turned around to look at the Critic as he looked back and forth between his gun and the ghost. He sheepishly smiled as he dropped the gun to the floor, talking nervously at his double, "Hehe, you, uh... Can't blame a guy for trying, right?" The clone readied it's thrower getting ready to blast. The Critic tugged on his tie as he backed into the serving counter behind him, "Hehe, you wouldn't shoot a guy with glasses, would ya?" A look of horror came over the Critic's face as the tip of the clone's thrower started to glow. He screamed in terror as suddenly a bright light shot out from behind it.

Ronny managed to get the Muon Trap off his belt and opened it manually. The specter erupted into a cloud of smoke and became sucked into the trap. The doors of the trap shut with three beeps following behind it. The suit stayed suspended in the air momentarily then dropped to the floor.

Dan continued looking around the room as he searched for the doll. He wasn't seeing anything and it was starting to make him unnerved. "Common," Dan said trying to coax the doll out of hiding, "Ruxpin, you creepy son of a bitch." The Ghostbuster kept looking high and low for the mechanical toy. Dan checked under the couch finding nothing. "Hmmm, where'd the little butthole go?"

That grainy music started to play as Dan rose his head noticing it was coming from right behind him. "Come Dream with Me Tonight..."

"_Oh shit!_" Dan flipped over in time to find the Teddy Ruxpin leaping in the air with a piece of the glass vase that was broken on the table nearby. The bear came down the tried to stab Dan in the face, but the Ghostbuster threw up his arm and by pure stroke of luck, the doll stabbed his elbow pad by mistake. Dan threw the doll to the floor hard and got up. As the doll tried to regain it's senses, Dan wound up his foot and kicked Ruxpin across the house, smashing it into a wall.

Dan armed his thrower and walked toward the bear, "I have had just about enough of the 'Child's Play' shit." "But, Dan, I want to have fun. I want to play jump rope with your lower intestines."

"See," Dan commented, "that's what I mean," and with that he shot the bear with a full stream, catching it on fire. Dan kicked the bear into the fireplace and ran up to place the screen over the flew to keep the bear from escaping. The creepy, grainy, analog tape-recorded music looped again and again as he watched the bear burn.

The bear could no longer move on it's legs, but kept repeating the tape until finally, it just spoke to Dan, "You think fire will cleanse, but the fire you induce next will kill innocence. You shall be burned by the fire you create, just as you did before." The bear giggled as Dan's eyes widened, "What did you say?"

From the kitchen, Ronny ran out into the living room and saw Dan burning the bear in the fireplace. He ran up, activated the Slime Blower and hosed the bear doll down. A red hellish beast appeared and started stomping the floor, knocking both Ghostbusters to the ground. In a deep, threatening voice, the demon spoke, "You, Daniel Patrick Shannon, will be the Fire Barer, delivering death to the meek!" "NOW!" Ronny screamed. Both men fired their throwers and caught the beast in the beams. Ronny singlehandedly threw the trap under the demon and allowed both Ghostbusters to suck it into containment. As the trap closed, three beeps were heard as the trap sat motionless, calm, and without consequence.

The Critic came out of the Kitchen very cautiously, peering around the corners to the hallways, "Did you get it?" Both Ghostbusters got up and Dan walked to the fireplace. He threw aside the screen and pulled the burnt, slime-encrusted pile of melted plastic and electronics out of the ashes. The engineer held it up, "Wanna keep it as a memento?" The Critic shook his head wildly.

The two Ghostbusters loaded their equipment on the gurney to slide back into the back of the truck. Dan was very slow about it, haltingly taking his goggles and his pack off. Ronny noticed this as he loaded the Muon Trap into the Ectomobile's Trap Charger, "Hey, you alright?" Dan grabbed the burnt Teddy Ruxpin and looked at it again. What it said cut into his thoughts like a sharp machete, _"You think fire will cleanse, but the fire you induce next will kill innocence. You shall be burned by the fire you create. __Just as you did before... Before... Before...__"_

"Dan!" The engineer snapped out of his trance and looked at Ronny, "What?"

Ronny looked at Dan's frightened and pale face and noticed something was very wrong, "You know what, we'll skip seeing my parents. I think we need to head back to the Firehouse." Dan nodded as he threw the burnt doll back into the back of the truck on top of the old flight suit the Critic had in his possession. With the back hatch closed and the lights flashing, the Ectomobile screeched off the local Naperville street and back to the city limits of Chicago.

558 W. DeKoven St. Legendary site of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. From behind a gate, a figure wearing a Metallica shirt looks at the bronze sculpture dubbed the "Pillar of Fire" said to be placed on the spot where Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over the lantern that started the fire. Beyond the gates was a building erected on the old O'Leary property. The man walked into the building. After a few moments, an explosion rocks the building, blowing out windows and sending office furniture through doors.

July 4th around 9 o' clock. A VW Jetta pulls in front of a bar on the north side located across from Wrigley Field called the Cubby Bear. Dan gets out of the car as he looks up at the sign of the bar, then looks at the door. He sighs as he walks to the door. Wearing a plain black tee shirt and normal street clothes he walks up to the bar and takes a seat. He raised his hand to get the bartender's attention. The bartender walked over, "What can I get ya?" he looked his customer in the face and noticed who it was, "Wait, Dan?"

The engineer nodded his head, "Hey Nick, long time no boozin'."

"Shit," the bartender began, "I haven't seen you since that time you beat half those assholes in the bar. Where the hell have ya been?"

"Quit Ghostbusting for a few years. Took up a straight 9 to 5 with the phone company."

"Not anymore, it seems." Dan did a slightly depressed half-smile as he nodded his head. "What can I get ya?" "Seeing it's been pretty hot, how 'bout a cold Lite?" The bartender opened a bottle of Miller Lite and placed it in front of him. Dan sat at the bar, taking small sips of his beer as he thought of the sins of his past. The bar was dead, same it has been for years on Independence Day. This time around the bar was almost completely empty. He noticed 2 other people at the bar with him and a figure sitting at a booth closer to one of the windows.

Dan closed his eyes and looked back to the day it happened. A woman's voice cries out at him, _"You have __**never**__ cared about me! You never listened, never protected me, and never made me happy." _He heard his own voice overlapping hers in his mind, _"After all I did, putting my reputation on the line for you? And you have the gall to tell me I never cared about you?" _Tears started to form in the corners of Dan's shut eyes. He takes another sip of his beer and tries to repress what thought was to come next.

_"Dan, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."_ "_If you think I don't care about you, then fine. Fuck this, I'm going home. Find your own way back." _Shuffling of feet was heard in his mind as the tears became harder to keep behind his close eyes. He heard a sudden rustle as he took another drink of his beer, this time more a gulp than a sip, _"If you don't stop following me, I'm not going to be held responsible for what will happen next." _The sound of walking resumed with another set of feet. With one last rustle, we hear a loud SLAP. _"You slapped me?" _at this point, Dan chugs the last of his beer and slams the bottle on the bar, _"You'll be sorry, you fucker. Good bye!"_

Still holding onto the bottle, the thought is now more intense than it ever had been before. He thought back to earlier that week, after the bust at the Nostalgia Critic's house. What that Teddy Ruxpin doll said to him, _"You shall be burned by the fire you create. J__**ust as you did before.**__"_

Dan quickly stood up as he took the bottle in his hand and threw it across the bar at the wall. It shattered, the shattering causing Dan to suddenly snap back into reality. Realizing what he just done, he noticed a grouping of eyes on him from the bar, bartender included, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." Nick put up his hands in a friendly gesture, "Dan, I've known you for years. It's okay. It's not easy to have what happened to you happen to you. Go ahead, sit back down, and I'll get ya another Lite."

The Ghostbuster realized he had tears running down his face as he sat down. He reached over the bar and grabbed a napkin in the napkin holder to dry his eyes. Nick placed a new bottle of Miller Lite in front of him as Dan starts to go into his pocket, "What do I owe?" "It's been taken care of."

"What do you mean?" Dan asked. As Nick grabbed the broom from under the bar, he repeated, "It's been taken care of. The young lady at the booth is paying for your drinks tonight." He turned around and saw someone at the booth, but he couldn't tell who it was. Dan grabbed his beer and walked back to the table to see who it was.

Upon reaching the table, the engineer sees Detective Bellum sitting in the booth drinking a Margarita, "It's about time you got here." "Jen!" Dan said astonished, "What are you doing here?" "Doing the same as you," the detective smiled, "Just having a drink, trying to forget. Please, sit with me." She gestured to the empty booth seat across from her. Dan took the seat as he watched her sip from the straw in her drink. "How long have you been here?"

"About an hour and a half. Went to your headquarters and your buddy Zach said you'd be here." Dan raised an eyebrow as he looked to the side, "Figures." They both took a drink from their respective beverages as Dan placed his bottle on the table, "Why is it I get this feeling you're following me around?" "I'll admit," she began, "I have been kinda keeping tabs on you, but with the way things are going, I want... NEED to know where you are at all times... Sorta."

"How many of those things have you had?" Dan asked pointing to the margarita glass.

"Oh," she said, placing her head on her hand as she placed her elbow on the table, "about... Six? Seven?"

"This is going to be interesting," Dan picked up his bottle and took a sip from it.

"Actually," Her slurring was noticeable now that Dan knew how drunk she was getting, "I do have something of PCU importance. It was the worst thing I've ever seen." There was a moment of silence as Janice tried to figure out how to explain it in her state of mind. "What? What is it?"

"Remember when I said I can see things?" Dan nodded, "Today, the Chicago Fire Academy exploded."

"What? When did this happen?"

"While you and the others were off on a call. Thirty-seven firefigher recruits were killed. I heard their cries. The place was covered in that orange slime, still burning. The firefighters tried to put it out. If I could have used my..." She looked to Dan, her eyes now filled with tears.

"Used what?" she lowered her head again as she shook it. Dan reached across the table and placed his hand under her chin, gentle raising it up, "If you could have used what, Jen?" She had a tear streaking down her cheek as he spoke, "If there's something I need to know, you have to tell me." She shook her head freeing it from his hand and proceeded to get up out of the booth, "Ask your friends, they have the information. Now isn't the time to say it." She started for the door as Dan called out, "Wait!" She ran out, knocking over a few chairs in the process. Dan got up and chased after her.

Outside, Janice tried to open the door to her unmarked car as Dan ran up behind her. She managed to get the door unlocked and was opening the door when Dan came up from behind and slammed the door shut, "Jen, I can't let you drive like this. You're drunk and emotional." She proceeded to get her mace out and tried to shoot the Ghostbuster in the eyes just for him to throw up his arm and block it from getting pointed at him. "What's wrong?" he said in a genuine voice.

Janice dropped the mace canister and fell into Dan. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight as she started to cry. Slightly bewildered by this turn of emotion, he stood for a moment with his hands still open. He finally put his arms around her and tried to comfort her. He spoke softly, "Come on, I'll take you home."

We come to a two unit house in Bucktown. Dan parked the car in a nearby parking lot as he got out to help Janice out of the passenger seat. She had passed out, so Dan had to pick her up and carry her to her house. Halfway there, she woke up, "Are we here?"

"4224 McLean, right?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Then we're here."

"Good. I think I can walk it from here." Dan made a facial gesture that suggested, "Okay," and set Janice's feet on the ground. As she tried to walk, she stumbled a bit. Dan ran up and grabbed her before falling over, "Okay, maybe I need just a bit of guidance."

They managed to get up the back stairs with her in front. Dan wasn't exactly sure what would happen if she fell backwards. Last thing he needed was to be accused of grabbing a Chicago Detective's ass while she was drunk. Luckily, she managed to open the door without an issue. It was a small area that looked to originally be an entryway that was converted into a small bedroom. She walked through another door that lead into her main apartment.

Inside the apartment Dan felt a sudden chill. It was extremely cold in the room. He saw many pictures on the walls and on the shelves, along with citations and awards. In one picture, he saw a large grouping of Chicago Police Officers standing in front of one of the local precincts with a placard that read, "Chicago Police, 14th District, July 7th, 2004." In the picture, Dan looked and looked and finally found Janice wearing a blue uniform shirt like the other patrolmen standing with her, but something was wrong with her. She had a very sad face. It was as though she was about to cry. The date, it was odd to him. "It was taken 3 days after," he commented to himself.

Dan had lost track of where Janice had gone. She walked out of the kitchen with a Smirnoff Ice in her hand. Dan shook his head, "Haven't you had enough alcohol tonight?" She dropped herself on the couch as she took a drink out of her bottle. It was as though the calm and collected Janice Bellum was missing and all that was there was her body with the mind of a disturbed individual. The scene at the bar left him very worried about the girl.

"Oh," Janice noticed Dan standing there, "did you want one? I also have Jack Daniels and Captain Morgan with some mixers. Interested?" Dan stood there dumbfounded, "Jen, what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you acting like this?"

Janice put the bottle down on the coffee table and patted the seat next to her, "Sit down. I wanna show you something." She grabbed a remote and turned on the TV. Hitting another button, she turned on her DVD player, "I'm sure you can understand when I say Independence Day is not a great holiday. If you think back to how we got this country, you think of how many lives were lost or destroyed. I guess traditions continue." She clicked the play button on the remote. A video started showing an older man wearing a white commander's shirt, but Dan couldn't tell for what. He was looking at the camera smiling. The film jolted around as he talked to the camera. The volume was off, but Janice still looked at the video as she grabbed her bottle of Smirnoff Ice.

"What are we watching?" Dan inquired as he took a seat next to her. "Home movies of a great man. His name was Roland Decker, a commander in the Chicago Fire Department." She took a drink and continued, "He was a highly decorated firefighter. On July 4th, 2004, he was killed in an explosion at the Exelon Power Plant off Pulaski. I was there when he was killed." She started to cry a bit. Dan grabbed a tissue from the kleenex box in front of him and gave it to her. She took it and blotted her eyes as she talked, "He got hurt badly, burned on half of his body."

"I remember that," Dan stated, "some crazy lunatic tried to dump more coal into the boiler than the boiler could handle. Busted the sucker at the seams from the pressure." "I was one of the officers called out to that job. I was still a rookie, still green. When I saw the security guards killed, I called out the fire department and for more back-up. I noticed the fire alarms were being tripped in the process. I saw burned bodies everywhere. I was horrified. Then my backup arrived with the fire department. The man causing the disaster was in the control room, crazed at building the heat. That man right there," she said pointing to the man on the TV screen, "noticed that the boiler was about to burst. We left the man behind because trying to convince him to come with us was out of the question."

Janice was making little sense to Dan. It was like there were chunks of story missing, but he assumed that it was because of the alcohol. She drank more of her beverage as she continued, "There was a massive explosion. A huge jet of steam blew out after a huge explosion. The firefighters dropped their hoses and ran away. The commander... He threw me to the ground as the steam came over us. He took his fire jacket off, covered my legs, then proceeded to cover my top half with his body. I felt the intense heat, but I wasn't burned or scalded by it. Him though... Without his jacket, from over the sound of the fire sirens in the power plant I heard him screaming in shear agony." The tears streaked down more and more as she explained.

Dan was in total shock, "Oh my god."

"He saved my life. The scalding put his system into shock and he was rushed to the hospital. 4 hours later, he died in the intensive care ward of Elmhurst Memorial. I never got to say goodbye to him!" She dropped her Smirnoff Ice bottle on the floor and busted into tears as she turned and grabbed Dan again. The video still played and Dan watched as Janice cried on his shirt. He saw in the video the man walking to the front door to his house to find a group of people standing in the living room holding a cake saying, "Happy 64th Birthday, Grandpa!" with Janice holding the cake. Dan suddenly realized what made this man more special than just someone who saved her life.

It was her maternal grandfather.

Dan gently wrapped his arms around her and placed a hand on her head, pulling her closer to comfort her. Suddenly, everything about Lynn no longer compared. That night, the Ghostbuster learned that pain can happen to two totally different people at the same time, and that sometimes, one's pain is more intense then another's.


	7. Chapter 7

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 7: Borrowed Time

"Are you sure you haven't seen him?" Ronny was on his cell phone driving around in his brother's Mazda. He had told his family he was back and that he needed a car, so now he was in the process of bringing back this car to the Firehouse talking to Zach.

"No, Ronny. I've been trying to call him, but his phone's off. This time a year he usually goes to the Cubby Bear, but I just got off the phone with the bartender. He left not even being there for fifteen minuets with a girl who I assume is the PCU detective."

"How can you be sure of that?" the Physicist asked.

Zach was at the firehouse standing next to the reception desk with the phone to his ear, "She came here earlier after you two left. I assumed that's where she went to talk to him."

"Well, when he gets in, we need to have a meeting about this. Dan's our Chicago Expert and everything going on right now, I know that Fire Academy was a historical site. He would know what the hell's going on."

"That's not the only thing, Ronny. Me and Mark pulled up some disturbing shit at the Chicago Historical Society and at the local Potawatomis Indian Reserve. We need him to hear this shit." There was a clank at the side door leading to the garage, "Hold on," Dan walked in the door, bags under his eyes, "Yeah, he just got here. When you get here, we all talk. Later." Zach hung up the phone and walked toward Dan, "Be honest, how hammered are you?"

"I only got two beers in me and that was four hours ago," the engineer stated.

"You're gonna wish you had more to drink," Zach said taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"Why are you still awake? It's friggan one in the morning."

"We all need to have a talk."

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Dan said as he started to walk upstairs, "It's been a emotionally fucked up day, and for once, they weren't all my emotions."

"Dan," Dan stopped on the stairs. It took a moment, but Zach finally spoke up, "We're on borrowed time as of now."

4 am. It was close to morning's first light. The information was reviewed again and again and now everyone was in Ronny's lab looking over information pulled out of the Indian reserve, the Chicago Historical Society, from the local library, as well and numerous printouts from Wikipedia. Spread out over the metal table, everyone pulled out notebooks as Dan grabbed an old Dry Erase board from one of the other rooms and placed it on an easel.

"Okay, time to put this mass of shit together." Dan drew a line on the board going across the top half, "The demons. They have the ability to draw PKE from either heat or cold depending on their ability and they can either gain or lose power depending on the opposite of those same powers. These things had to come from somewhere. Zach, we start off with you."

"From what the Potawatomis Indians were able to tell me, it sounds like we're dealing with a Brother-Sister demon type, class 6 environmental inhibitors, very nasty. There were the vengeful spirits of the Algonkin Tribe territories that went from the east shore of Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains and front Churchill River to Pamlico Sound. Basically, a grand portion of North America."

"Their jobs, missions, whatever?" Dan asked as he grabbed his coffee cup.

Zach pushed his glasses up on his nose and looked over his notes, "Since the Indians of the time before settlers arrived were extremely savage, invading territories and the like, a higher spirit cast these two demons to act as Chlorine to the Gene Pool, igniting fires and causing extreme winter colds that would usually wipe a chunk of the Indian populations out every thousand years.

"In what sounds like the 1300's, the demon of fire, named Pyrosys, caused a massive fire that was so intense in the southern region of what is now Wisconsin in one of the fall months, the Potawatomis said the Sulk and Fox tribe, who were inhabiting the territory at the time, could see it from their territory that was located just north of where we're standing. They called it, 'The Great Orange Sky'. The fire itself spread all the way to the south passed the now existent Illinois border and was about to wipe out the entire forest in Chicago when the Miami tribe, a neighboring tribe, called upon the Algonkin War spirit to send the winters for she could stop the terrible tragedy. The demon of cold, Cryoka, was sent from her place in what is now the Yukon Territories to destroy her brother for he had broken his vow and became insubordinate, killing for the sake to kill."

"Okay," Dan pulled out a red marker and drew a tick mark on the line and marked it, "1300's: Great Orange Sky." "Alrighty, where does it go from here?"

Zach looked to his notebook, "Cryoka uses her powers full force, yadda yadda, bullshit bullshit, freezes Pyrosys into a crystal of ice so cold, only the falling stars could ignite it. The Sulk and Fox bury the crystal in an undisclosed location."

Dan pointed to another person in the group with his marker, "Mark. Your turn."

"Okay, the next event that I think ties this whole series of disasters together is the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It was said a cow in a Mrs. O'Leary's barn kicked over a lantern and started the major blaze that torched the city."

Dan blinked a couple of times, "Mark, that was debunked when the asshole who worked for the Chicago Tribune flat out stated he lied about it." "I know," Mark said, grabbing one of the printouts from Wikipedia, "But here, it states in 2004, 'engineer and physicist Robert Wood suggested that the fire began when Biela's Comet broke up over the Midwest and rained down below.' In the archives at the Chicago Historical Society, there were eyewitness reports of fires breaking out across the Midwest at the same time, but none more messed up than Chicago. The comet fragments had to have landed on top of this Pyrosys dude, melted him, fired him up and caused the guy to just go berserk torching the city."

Dan nodded, "That does sound like a good point. Zach just said the fires of a falling star would wake his ass up, that would do it." He uncapped the marker and made another tick mark on the line putting in the notation, "Great Chicago Fire, Oct. 8-10, 1871 – Possibility". "Okie Doke, what's next?"

"Nothing else other than a list of fires including The Iroquois Theater Fire 1907, the Chicago Union Stock Yard Fire of 1910, and the Are Lady of Angels School Fire of 1958, all in instances where the fires were started by people or circumstances unknown. Or at least, with someone nearby the instance when it happened."

Dan put the capped marker to his bottom lip. He paced back and forth past the other Ghostbusters as they watched him think for as minuet. He turned around and walked back, now tapping the marker to his lip, looking at the whiteboard, "Ronny, I'm having a thought."

"I thought I smelt something burning," Ronny joked. Everyone looked at him including Dan who turned to look at him, all with a disheartening look. Ronny realized what he just did and lowered his head, "Sorry, no pun intended." "Anyway," Dan said trying to get back on track, "Is it possible these demons can inhabit a human host and use their life force energy as a kind of, I donno, lifeboat?"

"It's been known that ghosts class 3 up can possess people, but why would they do that to suck energy out of people if they can get it from the type of acceleration of particles?"

"Maybe they're using people to not only keep them with sufficient energy, but protect them from the opposing acceleration type. Like, wearing a coat in the winter."

"You mean, use them as a host to build their energy and store what they have until they use it for their purpose?"

"Yeah," Dan concluded. Zach came into this conversation, "With an ability like that, they would use human shells to protect themselves in certain weather conditions. Like, how in hell's name can Pyrosys survive Winter? Take a human host and set fires to structures. The Stock Yard, the Theater, and the School fires all took place in the winter months of the year. The Great Orange Sky and the Great Chicago Fire were also in slightly cold fall months, but this is assuming he didn't exhaust his PKE accumulations throughout the year."

That was when Mark made an out of the blue observation, "A lot of people died in those fires, as well. Is it possible he needs to kill people to help collect more PKE?"

"What do you mean?" asked Dan. Ronny quickly interjected, "I see where he's going. They say a ghost is the lost soul of a person who has unfinished business. Dr. Spengler put a logical idea to the superstition in saying that the mind and the nervous system are the anchor to the soul, and that the essence of a human's mind is an accumulation of PKE in itself. When someone dies a tragic death, the mind works in overtime putting off massive amounts of PKE. If it's possible for them to use a person as a lifeboat, they could suck up random PKE from dying people, but only where it involves hyper or hypo acceleration."

That concerned Dan, "What about the other one?"

"What other one?" Ronny asked.

"Cryoka. She's around here somewhere. She has to be. I've had two experiences with her already, Zach being with me on the second one. You think she's doing that, too?"

"Doubtful," Zach states, "if what Ronny says is true, it doesn't seem like she wants to kill us. Besides, she'd use up all her power killing someone in this heat."

Dan turned to the whiteboard again. He marked the other 3 events on the board, then made another mark. Dan capped the marker and walked out of the room into the kitchen. Everyone looked at what Dan marked aside of the other 3 incidents. It read, "July 4th, 2004: Exelon Power Plant."

The next day, there was a knock at a door. Janice opens the door to find Dan standing on the pad of the back apartment door dressed in his uniform. Janice was surprised to see him there, "Dan, what are you doing here?" "You and me need to have a talk. Now." He made his way past her and walked into the apartment.

"Why are you here?" the detective asked.

"Oh, you know why..." Dan turned around and looked her square in the eye, "...Cryoka."

"What?" She asked with a smile. Dan smiled back and nodded his head, "Don't insult my intelligences. Why were you at my customer's house talking to Alex the same day an ice machine started shooting ice at me? Why was I at a job where they didn't have home phone service, had a repair call put in, but instead of that they had a nasty ghost that just vanished when we shot it? Why was the firehouse so cold when you were in my lab? Why is it every damn moment I'm with you, you seem to have another set of eyes observing me?"

"Look, if this is about last night, I was just a little dru..."

"Cut the bullshit!" Dan screamed as he pulled out his Ectoplasmic Destabilizer Pistol and pointed it at her. She in turn pulled out her Beretta and pointed it at him. They were in a standoff. Dan noticed it again. The cold was getting colder in the room. He started seeing his breath. He kept his eyes trained on Janice as he noticed suddenly she started looking feverish. She started to act as though she was about to pass out, but then started to regain herself. Without immediate explanation, she holstered the gun.

Dan kept his pistol drawn as Janice stood up straighter, almost having a regal sense to her, something he didn't see before in her, "Cryoka, I presume?"

"Yes, Ghostbuster, I am Cryoka, Algonkin Servant of Ice and Winter. I had assured the Detective you would not discover before time."

"It was you who truly saved her life in that explosion at the Power Plant off Pulaski. Even with a fire jacket and another human body covering her, in such hot conditions she still would have been killed. That's just common sense."

"Yes, Ghostbuster, I did. It was because my brother was at the controls of the plant's coal stockpile and I witnessed her grandfather sacrifice himself to save her. I did not want her grandfather to die in vain."

Dan lowered his pistol slightly, "So, you're not here to kill us?"

"That was never my intention." Her voice was as though it was reverberating. Although he was slightly unnerved at the event, he placed the pistol into the holster on his belt.

"So, Cryoka saved you from the steam and three months later she had asked you to help her?" Dan was now sitting at the dining room table having a cup of coffee with Janice, Cryoka relinquishing control of her body back to her.

"Yeah. After the fire and the boiler explosion, I wanted to know what it was that killed him. I started to do more criminal studies work to move up in the department. When Cryoka asked for my help, I knew it was to stop the thing that did it. After a while because of her power inside me I started seeing the dead. They told me things that helped me discover what happened to them as an officer. Over time, they moved me from a Patrolmen to a Detective in Homicide. After that, when your team broke up, GBI's Internal Affairs wanted to make a team of police officers that handled crimes of a paranormal nature in every city. We're a test city and I volunteered to lead the team. After me and Cryoka noticed Pyrosys was back and now he was going for the big kill, she had to convince you – I had to convince you – to come back."

Dan placed his cup of coffee back onto the table as he folded his hands together, "Alright. One thing still bothers me: Why did you not go to GBI and have them start a new team of Ghostbusters here with Zach as team leader?"

"I did, but they said you were still active, even though you left the group."

"Are you being honest with me? Look into my eyes and say that."

She locked eyes with him. Dan could see almost immediately she wasn't honest with him. She had almost a shameful look in her eyes, "No, it's because I like you. When I first met Cryoka, I researched everything about the paranormal. I learned a lot about you, what you were like, what accomplishments you made. I saw you in action once even before that and I was amazed at how you kept cool in a hot situation..."

Dan raised an eyebrow as he gave her an inquisitive look. "No pun intended." Dan just picked up his coffee cup and had another sip as Janice continued, "But, you were just amazing. I believed in the paranormal a little at the time and thought it was mind blowing. I wanted to get to know you more and more the more I looked through Ghostbusters: Chicago Division's history."

"So that's why all the social calls," He plainly stated with a smile. She nodded her head. There was a moment of silence between them. She looked up at him and locked eyes again. The warmth. Something about her eyes entranced him. He broke the stare and looked at his watch. He took a double-take as he noticed it was 1:30 in the afternoon, "Shit, I need to get back to the Firehouse. I have to let the guys know what I learned!" He got up and was heading to the door when he felt a hand grab him from behind.

"Dan, wait," Janice said, tightly holding his hand. He turned around as she spoke, "Please, don't tell them about her. I'm afraid if they know all of it, the department will find out and they'll throw me off the force. Or worse, your team will try to destroy her. She's the only chance we have to stop him!" Dan looked down for a moment thinking about it. "Please!" He looked back up and saw the fear in her eyes. She was genuinely worried about the spirit within her.

"I won't tell them anything," Dan grabbed her other hand and held them tight, "I promise." She looked into his eyes. Now she was brought in by his eyes. They inch closer as they close their eyes...

Dan's cell phone goes off. Dan opens his eyes as an irritated look comes over his face. He let go of Janice's hands and reached into his sleeve pocket to get the ringing phone, "Ghostbusters: Chicago Division, Dan Shannon."

"Dan, Ronny. We got a call from Bryan, he says there's a heat increase around Lake and Wacker heading south. It looks like he's heading toward the Civic Opera House. We're heading out to cut him off."

"Alright. Did Zach get all he shit he needs for the spell?"

"Yeah, we got what we need. Wasn't easy."

"Okay, I'll meet you there. Shannon out." Dan hung up the phone and turned to Janice, "Jen, call your team and the fire department out to the Civic Opera House. If they can get CO2 fire extinguishers or anything cold, tell 'em to take them with them." With that Dan headed for the door once again when Janice stopped him, "Wait, are you sure you can do this?"

"We figure if we hit him with a heat dispersion spell, hose him with water, and then use our Mood Slime, we can drive him out of the host's body and trap him."

"Are you sure it'll work?"

"At this point, it's all we can do. Sure or not, it's all we got." Dan walked out the door and ran down to his car. Just as Dan got to his car, Jen called out to him from her apartment, "You won't get there fast enough with that thing. We can take my cruiser, get there in half the time!"

Janice's police cruiser was now heading southbound on the Kennedy Expressway toward Congress Parkway. As Janice drove Dan grabbed the radio mic, "This is Ghostbusters: Chicago Division member Dan Shannon, civilian access code David-Sam-272-Frank. Get me Fire Dispatch." After a burst of static, a voice came over he radio, _**"Dispatch."**_ "I need every available engine company in he vicinity of Wacker and Lake to converge on the Civic Opera House."

There was another burst of static as the dispatcher on the other end, _**"We already have a 476 in progress there."**_ Dan looked at the radio mic and blinked his disbelief, "What?"

Janice reached over and grabbed the radio from the shocked Ghostbuster and spoke into it as she dodged traffic, "This is Detective Bellum, Paranormal Crimes Unit. When did the call come in?" _**"Fifteen minuets ago. Tripped fire sensors."**_ "I want the PCU there now! Do you hear me? NOW!"

Along North Wacker Drive, Fire trucks, police cars, news crews, anything and everything was at the Civic Opera House. On the north side of the street, Janice's cruiser pulls up to the barricade risen along the northbound section of the road. On the southbound section of the road, Chi-Ecto pulls up to he scene and stops. Dan and Janice stepped out as Dan spotted the Ectomobile on he other end of the blocked off traffic. He started running when the officers cordoning off the area stopped him briefly only for them to wave him through upon notice he was a Ghostbuster. Janice flashed her badge and ran with him to the Chicago Division's truck.

The others started to unload from the truck as Dan ran up, "Guys! He's already inside. The fire alarm was tripped about 20 minuets ago." Mark stepped out of the driver seat, "We know. There's also a man inside with the gates over the doors shut and locked. We heard it on the police band on he way over." Zach opened the back hatch to the truck as everyone started loading up with Proton Packs, Traps, detection equipment, and finally Dan came back and grabbed a small box in front of the Pack rack. He opened it to have 2 more pistols in them complete with holsters. Dan took them out and handed them to Ronny and Mark, "Put these on."

After Janice talked to the Battalion Chief in charge of the situation, a small team of S.W.A.T. Officers approach the main doors with a couple of battering rams. The Ghostbusters and a few of Janice's officers follow behind the S.W.A.T. Team as then enter the building. In the main lobby Zach pulls out a PKE meter and starts scanning, "He's in the main theater." "Got your bag of tricks?" Dan asked, pulling his thrower off his pack and activating it. From off Zach's belt, there was an old worn leather pouch next to his belt circuit. He patted it with his free hand and commented, "It's all hear, Mon Frère."

"Get it ready." He turned to the S.W.A.T. Leader, "send the firefighters after us and tell them not to use their hoses until Dr. LaVoy finishes the incantation." With that he turned to the others, "Guys, let's have ourselves a barbecue." Mark and Ronny grabbed their throwers and fired up their packs and Janice and her team pulled out their pistols and turned off the safeties. They approached the doors into the main theater and walked in.

The rank smell of burnt flesh filled the large room as it was seen that people – assuming to be the cleaning crew due to the fallen vacuum cleaners near them – were on the ground, flesh charred to a cinder and slathered in orange slime. Looking up to the ceiling, both the Ghostbusters and the PCU officers noticed the black marks above covering the fire sensors. "Okay guys, lets take this fucker by the numbers," Dan stated as he walked ahead of everyone, "I'll take point, Zach with me."

On the stage, a man wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket, his face covered in piercings and facial hair, his long hair tied into a ponytail sat on one of the prop chairs at a table drinking a glass of wine. For the first time, the Ghostbusters saw their adversary. Dan stopped Zach and everyone behind them. He held out his hand to Zach indicating he wanted the PKE meter. As soon as he turned it on, the meter went insane. "He's the one. Jen," Janice came up from behind him and stood between him and Zach.

"You know, there was a time I wanted to be a heavy metal artist." The first words to come out of the man's mouth. It startled everyone, his voice projecting across the opera hall with clarity. He took a sip of the wine and put it back down on the table as he spoke, "But, as life turns out, some people don't appreciate certain forms of artistic expression as much as other forms." He stood up revealing himself to be wearing a Megadeth shirt under the jacket. He walked toward the orchestra pit to get a better look at his visitors, "Hello, Janice."

There was a look of terror on Janice's face as she exclaimed, "Matt!" Dan turned to her, "You _know_ him?"

"Know me? She better, she always _loved _to show me up," the man states as he looks down at her, "and it looks as though you're now a Detective in the Chicago Police. My, you've come a long way since Grandpa killed himself because of you, Sis."

Dan looked over at her again with extreme shock, "Your brother?"

"Matthew J. Bellum. Pleased to make your acquaintance," he bowed toward them then looked up slowly as he spoke, "Daniel Shannon, leader of Ghostbusters: Chicago Division." Dan gripped his thrower harder as the look in the man's eyes made him unnerved. Just then from all the fire exits, firefighters ran in with hoses primed and ready to be used at the man on the stage. Janice noticed this and threw up her hand and screamed, "Firefighters, don't spray!"

"What is this, a splash party?" Matt laughed as he paced back and forth on the stage, "Daniel Shannon. Little Danny Shannon. The man responsible for beating a fellow Ghostbuster because of a disagreement." He laughed again as Dan's heart started to race. "You had a little disagreement with Lynn, and all of a sudden, you beat her down in the middle of her home town with everyone watching, making her bleed, making her scream for you to stop!" "That's not true! That's BULLSHIT!" Dan raised his thrower and was about to blast when Zach grabbed his thrower and lowered it.

Dan looked at the man on the stage, "That's a lie. A lie started by her and another Ghostbuster!"

Matt still looking to the floor laughed again, "You honestly believe that? Did you not hit her?"

"Yeah, but..."

"Are you guilty?"

"What does that ha..."

Matt turned dramatically at Dan and screamed, "ARE YOU?" It was in a reverberated voice similar to what he heard Janice do as Cryoka spoke. "Yes. I did slap her. But I did NOT beat her! It was a sin I am greatly sorry for doing and promised myself never to let it happen again."

"Unfortunately," suddenly, Matt's voice changed from a regular voice to a reverberated one, meaning Pyrosys had taken control of his body, "the fact others believe the lie to the truth, makes the lie true. Everyone in this room has believed the lie as the truth, and for that you must be punished for being a SAVAGE!"

"Zach! The spell!" Zach started muttering the words as he reached into the pouch on his belt, pulled out a stone on a leather lace, and started waving it back and forth toward Pyrosys. The crystal glowed and shined bright as energy swirled out of the crystal and around Matt's body. Suddenly, Matt became encased in ice as Zach completed the incantation.

Dan screamed, "Firehoses, now!" The firefighters didn't do anything. They stood there and just looked at the Ghostbuster, "What are you doing? Come on, guys, hose him!" "Why should we?" Others around them started screaming, "Yeah!" around the Ghostbusters. Another firefighter who was holding the nozzle of the hose spoke up, "Lynn Springsteed was my friend. When she told me what happened, I was in total shock of what you did. Why should I help you, you crazy, woman beating fucker?"

"Are you all insane?" Janice cried out, "This is our only opportunity! Man your hoses and hose him down before he breaks out of that thing!" That was when all the PKE meters everyone was holding started buzzing and humming. Ronny and Mark looked to their meters as Ronny stated, "Too late! It's gonna crack!"

The ice shattered, sending chips of ice everywhere. A wall of flame rose up from the spot where Pyrosys stood. A fire started breaking out around the opera house as the firefighters are now turning on their hoses. As soon as the water came too close, it turned to water vapor. He was too hot to cool off. Subsequent explosions started going off inside the building, particularly in the audience seats as flaming balls of fury shot from the wall of fire.

"Evacuate the building!" one of the firefighters screamed as everyone ran out. Another explosion rocked out of the seats by the main entryway trapping a firefighter under a bunch of seats. He started screaming for help.

Everyone had reached the lobby and was about to run outside when Mark heard the firefighter in distress. Out of the corner of his eye, Zach saw Mark turn around and run back into the theater to help him, "Mark! What are you doing? Mark!" Zach ran out of the front of the building and grabbed Dan, "Dan, Mark went back into the building!" "What?" the engineer screamed.

Dan grabbed the talk button on the radio on his left shoulder strap and spoke to him, "Fontanetta, what the fuck are you doing?" After a burst of static, Mark replied, "There's a down firefighter in here! I went back to get him, but I need help!" Ronny took off his Proton Pack and started running for the door, "Ronny," Dan screamed, "You insane bastard, get back here!"

Inside, Mark was kicking the seats off the firefighters legs to get him free. Ronny came in and started pulling under the firefighter's arms to get him out from under the chairs, but he was stuck. It was extremely hot, but because all the doors were open in the building oxygen fueled the flames more and left very little smoke. The firefighter started screaming, "That slime shit! It's burning my Nomex! My Nomex is on fire!"

Ronny let go of the firefighter and roundhouse kicked the seats off him, knocking the seats to the side. Mark got the fireman up and managed to get his fire pants off him as they started running out the door. Suddenly part of the ceiling caved right in the spot the Ghostbusters and the firefighter were.

In the basement of the building, a gas line ruptures as all three men run out of the main doors. A violent explosion rocked a ball of fire behind them, throwing them out the main doors and into the street face first. Mark, who was still wearing his pack, hit the ground first with his pack following behind him, top of the device smacking him in the back of the head rendering him unconscious. Paramedics and police retrieve the three men.

Suddenly on top of the overhang to the Art Deco building, Pyrosys in the possessed man's body rang his voice out, "Because you refused to die for your savage behavior, Shannon, you shall instead watch the innocent suffer for your actions." Dan looked up, "Why?" "Because," the man smirked, "if I cannot kill you, I shall instead break your soul. If you solve this riddle, they can be spared, 'On the head of a king does the cold water spray, even after a thousand years you shall remember this day. Unless you stop the flame before the hour draws nigh, you shall witness all the children die!'" With that, the man vanished in a ball of flames.


	8. Chapter 8

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 8: Children Laugh No More

A bottle of smelling salts were stuffed under Mark's nose as suddenly he woke up. He sniffed to get the nasty odor out of his nose to smell one of a smoky nature, "I smell bacon. Are we at Denny's?" The paramedics looking him over looked toward Dan and remarked, "He'll be fine." Dan nodded as he looked back to the fire. After the firefighters knocked down the heavy flames, Zach used the incantation again to neutralize the heat of the slime while Ronny used his Slime Blower to melt the heat slime out of existence.

Dan tried to think of what the riddle meant. He paced back and forth for 10 minuets thinking of it. "'On the head of a king.' I don't get it," Dan states as he turned again to walk in the other direction. "Maybe it's an object we need to get?" Zach said as he walked up to Dan. "I donno," the engineer had a worried look on his face, "I don't like where this is going."

Janice had her eyes closed leaning against the Ectomobile. She was feeling very weak from the fires because Cryoka needed to replenish her energy. She spent some of it protecting Janice from getting caught on fire, but something flashed before her eyes. The dream from the night before. Children playing, the building, the light...

Janice awoke with a start, gasping for air as she exclaimed, "The Crown Fountain! In Millennium Park! 'On the kings head' is a Crown, and the cold water fountains!" Dan snapped his head around to look at her, "Are you sure?" "Yes! I saw it in a dream! There was a bright light in the park in my dream!" "Dan!" He looked at Zach as he spoke, "'before the hour draws nigh,' he may mean before the next hour!"

Dan looked down at his watch. It was 2:57, "Oh fuck, we have three minuets to get to Millennium Park!" He clicked the radio on his pack, "Ronny, get to the Ectomobile, now!" He turned to Mark, "Mark, we need you to drive as fast as you can there now, can you do it?"

"It takes more than an explosion and a pack to knock me out!" Mark stated.

"Good. Stop jawin' and start her up! Jen," the detective looked at the engineer as he put his hands on her shoulders, "Thank you." He jumped into the passenger seat as Ronny ran up and jumped in the back with Zach. The truck took off toward W. Jackson Blvd., lights and siren blazing.

3 minuets.

At the Crown Fountain, several kids are standing next to the tall pillars with pictures of women's faces on it. From the mouths of the women, a set of water jets shoot out and cover the kids with water. As they played, the mothers and fathers of the children watched their kids have fun from the benches around the fountains.

Nearly a mile away, the Ectomobile was fighting Chicago city traffic to get across the Loop. The surface streets were packed, so Mark skidded his way down to Lower Wacker to avoid the traffic.

2 minuets.

Mark came to a cross street upramp that took the Ectomobile back to the surface streets. The truck screeched around and came to Jackson Blvd.

A mother was pushing a baby stroller toward the center of the fountains, a towel draped over her arm. She knelt down in front of a little boy and started drying him off with the towel. She asks if he had fun with a smile on her face as the boy nods.

Jackson was completely messed up. Dodging buses, police cars, cabs, and bikes, the SUV was slowly making progress across the road. Ignoring signals from any form of traffic control, Mark blasted the horn to get everyone to move out of the truck's way. Dan hung his head out the window and screamed at the people to move out of the way.

A couple sitting at the McCormick Tribune Plaza are having glasses of iced tea with their meals as they take in the laughs of the children nearby. In the Boeing Gallery, students from the nearby Art Institute of Chicago sat along on the black granite benches drawing the landscape of the park.

1 minuet.

The Ectomobile became stuck behind a wall of cabs and buses. "Hop the curb!" Dan screams. Mark does and starts driving on the sidewalk, horn blaring along side the low-moan siren. The Ectomobile crossed many streets, causing cars to skid to a stop, some smashing into one another. Pedestrians walking the sidewalk jumped to the side as the truck barreled through. They came closer to the Jackson/Michigan intersection, but it was now becoming too late.

Back with the boy and his mother, the mother took the towel off his son to find that there was steam rising off him.

The girl at the Plaza was laughing at her boyfriend's joke as she lifted her glass of tea to find smoke coming off over the top of the glass.

The student in the Boeing Galleries noticed her sketchpad paper was starting to turn brown.

Hot Dog carts and mailboxes were run down by the truck, throwing papers and condiments all over the road. Mark saw the intersection for Michigan Ave. and turned the corner coming up on the park.

On top of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion dome, Pyrosys stood overlooking the park below him eyes closed and hand's together. Severe heat distortion radiation was emanating from his body as slowly the stage beneath him started to melt.

The Ectomobile skidded to a stop in the middle of Michigan Ave. blocking off traffic. Dan jumped out of the truck leaving the door open as he looked to the park. Dan stopped as he saw kids standing in between the fountains, and on top of the Pavilion he saw someone standing up there. He took his ecto-goggles and zoomed in to see Pyrosys standing above the stage. He dropped the goggles and started running across traffic. It was like it was happening in slow motion. Dan saw the kid and his mother turning around and looking at him as he screamed. The kids all turned to him.

It was as though Hell itself ruptured from the ground as a wall of fire exploded in front of him. Dan as well as several other people and cars that were too close were thrown from their positions, knocked back into the street into cars and the pavement. The fire shot into the sky as through the flames, he heard the faint cries of children screaming. Dan got off the ground and started running for the fire to try and save the kids when Mark and Zach ran up from behind him and grabbed him. Through the fire, he saw the people moving, heard them screaming, smelt them burning. Dan screamed at the top of his lungs as he fought their grip, "No! No! I have to help them! I HAVE TO HELP THEM! NOOOOO!"

Finally giving up hope, Dan watched the fire. Tears covered the man's face as his legs gave out from underneath him, causing him to fall to his knees. He caught himself with his arms on the ground just as he was about to fall face first into it. Off in the distance, he heard firetrucks and police cars approaching.

There was nothing left of those people. They were gone. The children. "Pyrosys!" Dan screamed, "Why the children?" He pounded the ground as he screamed louder, "You fucker, why did you have to take the children?" The other three Ghostbusters looked over their friend as the fires burned, their sweat and tears mixing together as they watched their failed attempt at saving Chicago's most innocent. They failed to save the children.

In an interrogation room at a N. La Salle St. police station and Cook County Courtroom, Dan sat alone with his head in his hands. The images of what he saw less than an hour ago still echoing through his mind. The whole thing was surreal. It was the single most massive loss of life he had seen in his career as a Ghostbuster. The door opened as an older man with a receding hairline walked in with a cup of coffee and 2 doughnuts on a plate.

The man set them down in front of the Ghostbuster as he spoke in a very calm voice, "It's okay, Mr. Shannon. You're not in any trouble. With the fires, we couldn't get you into a hospital at this moment. We just wanna make sure you're going to be okay."

Dan didn't look up. From under where his head was suspended, a small puddle of tears formed as the man placed the plate and the cup on the table, "Here you go. Try to eat something, you'll feel better." As he walked out, Dan started to quietly cry again.

From inside the room on the other side of the two-way glass, Janice stood looking at the Ghostbuster. She saw him, his face contorted with the pain of witnessing the most heartbreaking thing in the world. The door to the room opened as the man with the receding hairline walked in. He stood next to the detective as he spoke, "Poor guy. I couldn't imagine being there the moment it happened." A tear formed in the corner of Janice's eye as the tortured soul in the other room wiped the tears from his own eyes.

She saw it. Around his eyes were red from the tears, his suit still drenched in sweat, his hair a mess from the explosion and the constant running of his fingers through it, grabbing his head as though he was trying to stop the horrid images he bared witness to. Dan couldn't shake it, the look in the kid's eyes as he looked at Dan, screaming for him to run away from the park.

This whole time in the room, a TV suspended from the ceiling was playing Fox News Chicago of the incident, "...numerous reports of fires and explosions from the heart of Millennium Park was said to be caused by person's unknown. Chicago Superintendent of Police Philip J. Cline had refused comment at this time that Ghostbusters: Chicago Division was involved in the blazes..." the field reporter was cut off as the anchor in the studio spoke over her, "Sondra, I hate to interrupt you, but we are receiving word that President Barack _Obama is making an emergency press release about this incident."_

_ Dan looked up to find _Byron Harlan, Fox News anchor for Chicago, had cut the live feed from the park to a podium, "We're switching live to Washington D.C. where the President is already making his address."

Dan got out of his chair and looked at the screen as the President of the United States came on the air. "Today, at 3:00 pm local time, Millennium Park in the city of Chicago, Illinois was explosively detonated by an unusual and extraordinary force. Ghostbusters International Internal Affairs, a Multi-Government Watchdog group that monitors all paranormal activity and Ghostbusters International operations, has stated to me that the fires were caused by a demon that has been under investigation by Ghostbusters: Chicago Division and the Chicago Police Paranormal Crimes Unit."

Dan's heart was sinking fast. If the President was giving a press release, he knew there was only one way this could end, "As under recommendation of GBI: Internal Affairs, I call that all Ghostbusting activity in the city limits be halted and that all Ghostbusters in the city be taken into custody until a federal investigation can be completed. Please, no questions." The President walked off the press release floor as Dan stood in horror looking at the TV.

The door to the room opened. Two uniformed police officers stood guarding the door as an FBI agent walked in and started talking to Dan, "Mr. Shannon, I'm Special Agent Michael Satire, FBI. I'm here to talk to you about your stroll in the park, but first, I'm going to ask you relinquish any and all Ghostbusters related paraphernalia on your person." With his head down, Dan unbuckled his belt that had his trap, his meter, and his pistol attached to it and handed it to the Agent. The Agent took the belt in one hand and placed his other hand on Dan's shoulder as he spoke, "I'm sorry, son. I wish it didn't come to this." With that, the Agent and the two officers escorted Dan out of the room.

Two days later. The park was now deemed a Federal Disaster Area with FBI and GBI: Internal Affairs agents looking over the area. The four Ghostbusters themselves were locked into isolation from general population in the Cook County Jail for fear general would kill them. All of them were still in their uniforms, the smell of smoke still soiled them as they sat in the bunks of the crowded room.

The whole 48 hours they were there, Dan had not said a word. He shook badly as he laid in his bunk. Ronny looked to the clock on the wall outside the jail cell to see it was now one in the afternoon, "Another half hour and we see the judge."

"How the hell are we going to explain this?" Mark asked, "I mean, we didn't do anything, but how are we going to explain to a federal judge we didn't cause it?"

"I'm sure Louis will come through and bail us out," Zach said, "He's done it with other franchises. We'll be shown to be not guilty."

"We are guilty." Everyone turned to the bunk above Zach as Dan flipped over and swung his legs out to sit over the edge of the bed. "Dan," Ronny said with a small unconvincing laugh, "you can't mean that." "I do." Dan hopped down and walked to the back of the cell and looked in the plastic mirror that hung over the toilet. There were dark circles around his eyes as he looked at himself, "All of this is my fault.

"When we were in Naperville, the demon at that one guys house, he said something to me. He said, 'The fire you induce next will kill innocence. You shall be burned by the fire you create, just as you did before.' Pyrosys can see savage evil. That's what he does, exterminates that evil. If he couldn't make a person who was guilty die for their savageness, he would break their spirit. What I did to Lynn – a skeleton in my closet – came back and rattled it's bones causing hundreds of voices to cry out and then the roar of the fire drowned them out. It was my evil deed – slapping her in the heat of anger – that caused all this. It's my fault." Dan punched the plastic mirror, causing it to crack but not shatter as he screamed, "It's my fault! They died because of me!" He turned around and sat on the toilet seat as he put his head into his hands and whispered, "They died because of me."

The courtroom. Pre-Sentencing. All four Ghostbusters sat at the Defendant bench awaiting the Judge. Normally with the Cook County Jail a Judge would run a summery sentence and pass judgment on the spot, but because of the nature of what was happening, such a thing needed more consideration. The Judge came out of her Chambers and approached as the bailiff called for everyone to rise as she walked to her bench. The Judge took her seat and everyone sat down.

"Case 482-86D, The People Vs. Ghostbusters: Chicago Division," the bailiff called out, "Charges: Reckless Endangerment, Damages to Private, Public, and Federal Property, and 376 counts of Involuntary Manslaughter. How do you plea?"

Dan stood up. He stood tall as he said it, "Guilty."

The whole room broke out in gasping, yelling, and loud chatter when the Judge smashed her gavel on the bench, "Order! I want order!" Everyone quieted down as the Judge looked at the Ghostbuster still clad in his jumpsuit looking her right in the eye. She looked into his eyes and noticed he really meant it. Even the members of his team looked at him in shock as she spoke, "Mr. Shannon, I believe myself to be a of sound mind, but in an event like this I cannot believe why you would plea such a thing. Do your colleagues share your plea?"

"If I were to make a leap in logic, your honor," Dan said, "If they wish to plea Not Guilty, I wish for them to do so now. If they do plea not guilty, I will serve their sentences in their place."

The Judge had never seen anything like this in her life on the bench. She looked to the other Ghostbusters with him, "In this rare occasion, I normally would convict all of you, but as per Mr. Shannon's request, how do you gentlemen plea?"

Dan looked down at them. Dan shook his head indicating he wanted to be alone on this one. Zach stood up first, "I plea Guilty."

Then Mark and Ronny stood up as Mark spoke, "We plea..." Mark looked at Ronny and he nodded, "We also plea Guilty, your honor."

"What are you doing?" Dan said quietly.

"We're not going to let you take the rap for this alone," Zach stated, "You're our friend." Mark and Ronny nodded agree with Zach.

The Judge smacked her gavel again, "Order. Daniel Shannon, Dr. Zachery LaVoy, Dr. Aaron Tade, Marcus Fontanetta, for the charges placed against you, you will serve 29 consecutive 99 year sentences in Statesville Penitentiary in Crest Hill, Illinois without possibility of repeal or parole," Everyone hung their head low, "However, due to your service to the city and fact that you saved a member of the Chicago Fire Department less than an hour before the incident in Millennium Park, I hereby commute the sentence. You will then hereby receive your equipment and your sentence will now be 25 hours community service."

All the Ghostbusters snapped their head's up, "WHAT?"

After smacking the gavel one last time, she quickly got up and was starting to head back to her chambers when she stopped and turned to them, "I would also like to see you gentlemen in my Chambers."

In the Judge's Chambers all four Ghostbusters stood before the Judge. Dan had to ask, "Your Honor, I don't understand. What happened out there..." "Was not your fault. I believe much in Justice, but I am not a fool to not believe my own eyes." The Judge poured a glass of water on her desk, while doing so her hand was shaking badly. The judge was an older woman about in her 60's, but didn't look nearly old enough to have any major medical problems.

"You were there, weren't you?" Dan asked. She dropped the pitcher on the desk spilling water everywhere on her desk. She quickly grabbed a picture off the desk to keep it from getting it wet. She looked at it as Dan put his hand on her shoulder, "Please, tell me."

"He was only four years old, she was less than six months old. I lost both of them and my daughter in that fire. I saw you pull up in your truck and saw you charge toward the park when it erupted into a wall of fire." She turned around and handed Dan the picture. Dan's eyes went wide as he looked at the boy's face. He went pale as the flashes of his own memory from 2 days ago crossed his mind. It was the boy at the Fountains.

Dan looked up, "What do you want us to do?" Tears had formed in her eyes, "You get that son-of-a-bitch that took my daughter and my grandchildren away from me. Make him hurt!"

Dan placed the picture back in her hand. He had a mean scowl on his face, "You got it, your Honor."


	9. Chapter 9

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 9: Powerhouse Struggle

Millennium Park at night with this kinda of destruction was disturbing. Janice walked under the "Crime Scene – Do Not Cross" tape surrounding the area. The GBI:IA agents and FBI agents vacated the area the day before with no issues other than the fact it was hot there. As she walked around in the park, she heard things. She ignored them and made her way toward the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

As she walked over the hill, she saw the stage that made up the Pavilion. It was a twisted, melted mess. The heat started to build up as she walked closer, almost like standing in front of a blast furnace. Suddenly there was a booming voice, "Hello, Janice. I was wondering when you'd get here." She stopped in her tracks when she realized who's voice it was. "Matt, we have to talk!"

A fireball erupted on the stage as she shielded her eyes. She removed her arm when the light died down to find Matt on the stage, "Why don't you come up here and give me a hug, sis?" "Matt, you can't keep doing this! People can't keep being killed like this!"

"Why not?" Matt began, "Most of these people were going to die eventually, anyway. Why not spare them the bullshit that's called life?"

Janice was now walking onto the stage, "You can't just do that to people, they have to make their lives their own. You can't decide who can do what they want and who deserves to die!"

"Funny, coming from you," he said lighting a cigarette with his finger. He took a drag as he walked closer, exhaling as he talked, "I remember when I wanted to do thrash metal music. I also remember you deciding for me how much you don't want me to do so by taking a pair of sheet metal clippers and cutting the strings on my bass and cutting the cords on my amp."

"Look, I was mad. I hadn't slept in 3 days and you were blasting that shit as loud as you could..."

Matt's voice roared overpowering hers, "DON'T MAKE EXCUSES!" He turned his back and started taking another drag from his cigarette. "It was because of you Grandpa was killed. Where do you get off?"

"I didn't kill him!" She pleaded, "If it weren't for him, I'd be dead!"

"If it weren't for you, I'd have a band and my Grandfather. You killed my equipment, and you killed grandpa. You've done nothing but hold me back, and now it's time for you to feel pain! Pyrosys, do your thing!"

Matt was suddenly engulfed in flames as his eyes smoked. Immediately after, Janice's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and suddenly started having a type of fog roll over her. Pyrosys spoke as he noticed what was going on, "Sister, I see you're here as well."

Cryoka spoke in a matching reverberated voice, "Yes, Brother. I am here to stop you from destroying these people's lives." Almost immediately, she slumped down a bit as though she was already becoming weakened. Pyrosys noticed this and laughed, "Why, Sister? You look as though you're beginning to thaw!" He laughed at he approached her, "Do you believe these idiotic people deserve to live? They don't even like each other."

"You're wrong about that," she commented, "I've seen compassion and will. More than the people we once governed, Brother. I must protect them. They are not all savage."

"It doesn't matter if they are or not. They need to learn to fear being such, even if they are not. You are to be the first!"

Back in the GB:CD headquarters, all four Ghostbusters sat in the garage trying to figure out what the next move was. Ronny was pacing the garage with a cigarette in his mouth, Zach sat at the reception desk, and Mark and Dan sat on the tailgate of the opened Ectomobile. As they sat there, Mark kept rubbing the spot where his Proton Pack nailed him in the head, "We really should make a smaller pack. That thing almost killed my ass."

"We have to use something that will freeze more efficiently than chemicals," Ronny stated as he made a pass in front of the desk.

"What about Liquid Nitrogen?" Zach asked, "If we load it into one of the Mk.I Slime Blowers..."

"Too dangerous. He can accelerate the liquid back into a gas, have it mix with oxygen, and cause another ignition. Either that, if he got wise he could rupture the Slime Blower killing anyone using it."

"I just wanna be more agile in the field. A smaller pack would be better for someone like me."

"We could always get more of those crystals. That should do something."

"But the one you got was expensive by itself. We don't have the money..."

"In case someone else got in trouble I can run in..."

The conversations started meshing together. Dan was starting to get annoyed. He stood up and yelled, "Everyone! Shut. UP!" Everyone looked at him. "There's got to be something we can use, something that can nullify him, not just slow him down. The only thing we got is the slime. Ronny, do we have enough slime to load into Slime Blowers?"

"No, and even if we did the slime isn't cold enough to stop him. We'd have to somehow reactivate the PKE in it to make a type of 'Cold Beam', but we'd have to use a modified cyclotron like we use for our Proton Packs to attempt something like that. We don't have time for that."

"Actually," Mark interjected, "there's something Dr. Stantz..." before he could finish, there was a loud screeching of tires and then a crash outside. Everyone got up and ran outside. What they found was a blue Crown Victoria now smashed into the back of a truck across the street. Dan recognized it, pushing himself in between Ronny and Zach. He stood shocked a moment, "Oh shit! Jen!"

Dan ran across the street, the other Ghostbusters following after him.

Inside the firehouse, Janice laid in one of the beds in the Bunk Room as Dan laid a cold compress pack on her head. Her clothes were ripped, tattered, and burned in places. The smell of fire and smoke drenching her clothes. She was bruised, cut up, and bleeding. She was sweating badly, mixing with her blood and making it watery. "Someone crank the A/C," the engineer said as he started bandaging her up. The other three Ghostbusters looked over him as he genuinely tried his best to tend to her. "What are you doing standing there? Crank the A/C, damnit!" "Dan, we really should take her to a hospital."

Dan turned around and looked at Zach, "We can't do that. The hospital can't help her. Only we can help her now."

"Are you fucking insane?" Mark questioned.

"He's not." Dan turned back to Janice who was now awake. She was still laying down on the bed, sweating profusely, "I think you can tell them now. She wants you to." Dan nodded and turned back to the others, standing up.

"You were wondering where the Spirit Cryoka was. She's currently inhabiting Jen's body." The others looked as though they were about to ask questions, but Dan stopped them beforehand, "I know what you're going to say, but trust me, she's on our side."

"Okay," Zach says stepping forward, "let's say this is true and she doesn't want to kill us, what the Funk and Wagnall happened?"

"Went to the park. Was going to fight him..." She was drifting out of consciouses when Dan knelt down and shook her, "Come on, don't pass out on us now!" She said one last thing, "In two days, he's gonna..." Too late, she passed out. Dan grabbed a nearby PKE meter and tuned it to to pick up her bio-frequency and Cryoka's PKE levels. Cryoka and Janice's frequencies were extremely low, "Oh shit. Ronny, go into the lab and grab one of those tanks of Liquid Nitrogen. Mark, help me take her into the sub-basement."

"What about me?" Zach asked.

"Get coffee."

Once in the sub-basement of the firehouse, Dan walked into the Proton Pack repair chamber and started clearing out all the radioactive fuel in their protective cases and then with Mark's help placed Janice onto the work table. Ronny ran down the spiral staircase with a canister of liquid nitrogen as Dan started placing a radiation suit life support system over Janice's face.

Ronny stopped short behind Mark as they watched him strapping the mask over her face, "Dan, what in hell's name are we doing?" "She needs energy. You said it yourself, cold can make her powerful. If Cryoka dies, Jen dies with her. She's using her as a lifeboat and the boat has a leak."

"You're going to freeze her using the nitrogen? I donno, Dan, this stuff can kill her just the same."

"Look, this way Cryoka can revitalize Janice's own PKE signature. She still has some power left, so she can protect her body while gaining strength from the cold. Now put the canister in here!" Ronny looked at Mark and then back at Dan, "This is incredibly stupid, but it's worth a shot."

Ronny placed the canister on the floor and after putting a protective glove on, opened the valve on the canister. Ronny quickly walked out as Dan shut the vault-like door and watched through the doors window as the room filled with fog being shot from the canister. "You sure she's going to be okay?" "Yeah, she's got oxygen coming from an outside source, so she can stay in there as long as she needs."

Walking back upstairs, the three of them talked about what could be done under the circumstances. "So, what are our options?" Dan asked as they reached the main basement floor.

Ronny started first, "Unless we can figure out a way to reactivate the PKE in the Cryoplasm, we have no choice but to rely on chemical means and..." before he could finish, he tripped over a case sitting next to Dan's work bench and ran into Dan. Dan stabilized himself with Ronny's weight on top of him then shoved back. He turned around and looked at the physicist, "What the hell was that about?"

Ronny straighten his glasses as he pointed at the case now behind him, "I tripped over this stupid case. Feels like there's bricks in this thing."

"When the hell did that get here?"

Mark answered that one, "Oh! This came the day we got here. I put it down here and forgot about it. It was something Dr. Stantz wanted you to look at."

After getting the case on the work bench, Dan opens it to find two smaller Cyclotrons. Similar in design to the regular Proton Packs just decreased in size. "What the hell are these?"

"Dr. Stantz was working on these for a while and couldn't get enough power out of them to make a smaller pack design. He figured with you back on the beat, you'd be able to tinker with it and do something useful with 'em."

Dan looked at Ronny, "When you said you could reactivate the PKE in the slime using a Cyclotron, exactly what's needed to be done?"

Ronny had grabbed the blueprints out of the case and was looking over the notes, "It looks like with a little retooling, this might actually do it! Hell, I got an idea to improve the power outputs by adding Nucleon jackets and a few fermion rings so we can make this smaller pack design possible for you, Mark."

Dan was pacing his lab as Ronny talked, thinking of the last thing Janice said before passing out, "Two days. She said something about in two days, Pyrosys was going to do something. We only have until tomorrow night to get these done."

"I take it I'm gonna need to make more coffee than this?" Zach asked as he approached the bottom of the stairs holding a pot of coffee.

"We're gonna need gallons of the shit. Come on, boys," Dan said with a scowl on his face, "Let's go to work."

Sparks fly as Ronny fires up an Oxy-Acetylene torch and begins cutting pieces of metal out into various shapes. In another section of the electronics lab, Dan takes apart a Proton Pack and begins taking it's parts to the bench. Mark is hammering away on a piece of metal forming other pieces.

Hours pass, Ronny and Zach are up in the Bio-Chem-Ecto lab mixing many forms of ectoplasm together to form various formulas to add to the Pyroplasm and the Cryoplasm. Dan and Mark stayed in the Basement electronics lab using arc welders to form the pieces together. In the BCE Lab, Zach and Ronny carefully pour the blue contents of a beaker into a blue colored supply tank.

Night was falling quick in the summer night as the body in the Sub-Basement's Proton Pack repair chamber twitched slightly. Janice was seeing visions again but she could not stop it.

Dan and Mark worked on the electronics for Mark's Pack, plumes of a smoke coming from their handy work as solder melted and mended various wires and circuits together. Ronny and Zach came down with three canisters, presumingly filled with slimes; they had with them a green canister used for a PDS, and red and blue canisters. Dan took the canisters and installed them on the various ports of another pack utilizing a power cell, crank box and vac pump from the cannibalized Proton Pack with a modified Synchronous generator design and the smaller cyclotron design.

After installing the tanks, Dan hooked up the main thrower which resembled an assault rifle into the accelerator with two hoses: one black lead lined tube and another clear vinyl tube. Dan activated the pack and a start-up acceleration noise that was in much higher a pitch than a normal Proton Pack emanated from the device. After a moment, he hit a switch on the left side of the Vac pump assembly. Normally where a crank knob was located a small scrolling LED display was placed and was displaying a message that read, "CHARGING" in red lettering. Green slime pumped from the green tank into the vac pump. After a moment, the clear tube going to the thrower filled with the slime.

It was now nightfall. Ronny got off the phone with someone from Mayor Daley's office that just said there was strange activity at the Homan Square Community center in the old Sears, Roebuck, and Company Complex. With all the fires, they called the fire department and the Ghostbusters with everything that's been happening. Loading up the new equipment in ChiEcto, the Ghostbusters piled into the Ectomobile to go to the complex.

It was a very muggy night. The heat index was said to be 102 degrees that night. They listened to local Rock station WLUP – The Loop – DJ Pete McMurray who gave the details, _"Tonight, 98 degrees and clear with muggy conditions with a heat index as high as 104, so if you have one of those indoor portable A/C units, keep emptying those buckets. Tomorrow, breaking into the triple digits, the hottest day of the summer up to 104 degrees. A warning has been issued both tonight and for tomorrow that if you have a loved out in the summer heat, the Chicago Board of Health advises to check them into your local cooling shelters. To find a local cooling shelter near you, call 3-1-1 or Visit for more information..."_

Dan turned the radio off as they were almost at the disturbance call. Something about that weather report bothered him, but at this point there were a lot of suspicious things that seem to make things harder on life. They arrive to the Community Center in Lawndale to find the building on fire. The Battalion chief runs up to the Ectomobile and tells the Ghostbusters there were two demons in the Community Center. They hightailed themselves out of the building and into the old Sears, Roebuck and Co. Power House which was now being used as a High School. Putting the truck back in gear, Mark sped off to round the corner to the Power House's entrance.

Everyone was loading up their equipment, including the newly build Mk. II Pack for Mark and the Ecto-Vitalizer Pack Dan loaded himself into. As they walked into the building, Zack and Ronny took a scan with their meters. The Ecto-Vitalizer wasn't as heavy as a normal pack, but something about the thing make Dan unnerved. It had more to do with the fact Ronny made a majority of the plan alterations without really consulting Dan over the design.

"So, Ronny," Dan said walking past one of the old A/C pumps. "Are you sure this will work?"

Without looking up from his meter, Ronny spoke, "Should."

"Have you tested this idea before?"

"In theory."

Dan raised an eyebrow with a worried look on his face, "Will this thing explode, 'In theory'?"

"It's possible."

A look of dread came over Dan's face as he stopped walking for a moment as he said sarcastically, "Thanks for that shot of confidence, Ronny. You're a real peach." With that, Dan reached behind him and grabbed thrower for the device and activated the pack again. The light in the building was almost non-existent save a couple of florescent lights.

The team split up to cover more ground. From what looked like catwalks Zach and Mark surveyed the upper portion of the building. Old machine shops used for manufacturing parts were now restored with desks and chairs for the classrooms that were now out for the summer season. Zach kept scanning with the PKE meter as Mark used a digital thermometer. So far, it was cold on both detection devices.

In the basement of the building in the service corridor, Ronny was scanning the heat ducts that lead into the old administration building of the catalog plant. Dan on the other hand was scanning the main floor. On the thrower of the special pack was a thermal scanner. It read with an analog thermometer but that wasn't enough. Dan had modified his Ecto-Goggles to read thermal patterns and had it programmed to distinguish between humans, equipment, and PKE-induced heat signatures. Dan clicked the talk button on his radio, "This is Shannon, report."

_"Cold trail,"_ he heard Mark's voice report.

_"Same here, Dan,"_ Zach's voice echoed.

"Alright, Tade, what ya got for me?" There was no answer. Dan spoke again, "Ronny, come in. Ronny!" He released the button on the radio as a look of horror came to his face. He quickly hit the button again, "Fontanetta, LaVoy, report to the basement now!"

Once in the service corridor, all three men searched the hallway for their missing compatriot. Dan used his newly enhanced goggles to locate him halfway down the long underground corridor, Dan picked up a blip on his scopes. The goggles identified as a human heat pattern covered in Psychomagnatheric ectoplasm derivative. Dan raised his goggles as they came up on Ronny who was down on the ground face first covered in slime. Dan and Mark lifted Ronny up from under his arms as he blurted out, "Guys, it's a set-up!"

Throughout the corridor, furnaces started firing up as gratuitous amounts of heat started pumping into the vents as suddenly old gas pipes burst at the valves. Water boilers start bursting as scalding hot water begins flooding the basement and the corridor. As the water approaches, so does the natural gas. The smell of rotten eggs filled the small space where everyone was as they started coughing. They started running the other way toward the lower floors of the administration building.

In the process, Zach, who was in front of Mark, tripped and fell to the floor, Mark following behind him. Dan heard them go, "THUD" and turned around to find the hot water getting too close. Taking the new pack's thrower off his belt, he fired a beam with the cold setting. A blue translucent beam shot from the end of the gun as it took all the moisture out of the air and turned it into fog as it approached the water. Upon contact the water turned into a solid sheet of ice. Water kept rolling over the mound of ice until a wall of ice formed sealing off the corridor. Dan picked Mark up as Zach got up on his own and they began running again.

The gas drifted upstairs and came in contact with a florescent tube that was flickering. A large fireball erupted and blew the windows out of the building as the flame reached to the basement. A concussive blast ruptured the ice wall made from the once boiling hot water and knocked everyone to the ground. A chunk of ice flew out and smashed Dan in the shoulder, causing him to scream in pain.

"Shit!" Mark screamed, uncovering himself from the ice, "Dan's been hit! We gotta cap those gas lines!"

"Ronny," Zach asked, "Can you make that slime tether shoot a single glob over those gas lines?"

Ronny quickly grabbed a screwdriver out of his pocket and started messing with the slime nozzle of his thrower. After making the proper modifications, he activated the PDS and launched a large glob of green ectoplasm at the pipes supplying the fuel which the fire burned. A couple of blobs of sticky slime shot later, the fires stopped.

Dan sat against the wall as he pulled the Ecto-Vitalizer off him to rub his shoulder. "Dan," Mark asked, "you alright?" "Yeah," the engineer responded, "The ice nailed an old injury. I'll live, but BOY am I pissed!"

Ronny and Zach walked up as the physicist commented, "We need to get outta here. I don't think we can do anymore damage in this place."

Upstairs, massive damage laid waste to the whole building. Upon the scorch marks on the walls, there were school desks broken into pieces strode about the floor as well as pieces being plunged into walls. Coming from the service corridor the Chicago Ghostbusters saw the windows blasted outward into the neighborhood. "I sure as hell hope they don't make us clean this," Mark said with cynicism, "we'd be here for two months doing it."

Dan walked up behind him still holding his shoulder, "Even if they do, we'd be kicked off the job. I suck at drywalling."

"But aren't you an electrician?" Mark asked.

"Don't push it, smartass."

Suddenly from out of the heat vents, a pillar of fire erupted and shot across the room toward them. Zach and Mark dodged out of the way as the fires metamorphose into a creature that measured 12 feet tall. In almost complete panic, Zach and Mark open fire with their particle throwers completely forgetting the danger in firing on it. "Stop firing, you idiots!" Ronny screams as him and Dan make an attempt to run at them. The demon sends out a hot air shockwave which knocks all four Ghostbusters across the main level of the Power House. Mark is thrown out a window, Zach smashes Pack First into an A/C pump, and Dan and Ronny fly back into the ground skidding across the floor into a wall.

Zach immediately stood up and was about to fire again when he found his pack wasn't working. "Shit!" he yelled, "Must have ruptured the Vacuum seal on the generator." That wasn't the worst of the situations at hand. He heard his pack start to labor and he could feel the pack start to heat up. "Oh, hell!" was all he said as he attempted to pull the pack off.

"Get outta here! She's gonna blow!" Zach screamed as he threw the pack to the other side of the building. Dan and Ronny got up in time to see Zach running toward the closest window to jump out from. The demon runs toward the pack that was thrown toward the back side of the room. "Oh, no! Zach's pack!" Ronny commented, "If that thing blows, this whole area will be nuked!"

"We can't evacuate the whole area, there's no time!" Dan screamed, "What do we do?" Ronny took off his pack, grabbed the Ecto-Vitalizer from the floor and put it on, "I'm gonna cool it. It should buy us some time."

"Are you fucking loopy? The radiation from the power cells will kill you!"

"That demon ran for it like a fat kid chasing an Ice Cream truck. If it absorbs the heat, we're dead anyway. If I can cool it off enough, I can pull out the cells and stop the detonation."

"What do you want me to do?

"Find Mark and get as many people away from here as you can." With that, Ronny ran toward the pack. Dan looked back toward the door and started running toward it. Once outside, he found Zach talking with the paramedics treating Mark. He bolted toward the ambulance and screamed, "Get out of here, evacuate the area! There's a Proton Pack about to go critical and it's gonna blow this whole area!"

"Wait," Zach asked, "Where's Ronny?"

"He went back in to shut it off!" the engineer said in a nearly panicky state, "He took the Ecto-Vitalizer in with him to slow the reaction, but there's a major problem."

Zach quickly knew what it was, "Our pack's Power Cells can't be accessed without a key code. I didn't know he was gonna go back in there!"

"Me and the fire department will evacuate the area. You're going to have to go back in there and help him. You've got 10 minuets until it goes critical!"

Zach looked down. He knew what was going to be involved. He snapped his head up and ran toward the Ectomobile to access the back. He grabbed a pair of radioactive protection gloves and a lead vest.

Inside the Power House, Ronny found the pack and started dismantling it with a screwdriver. As he made an attempt to access the Power Cell he was sweating profusely due to the heat emanating from it. He pulled out a military angle head flashlight and turned it on so he could see what he was doing. "Damnit," Ronny complained, "there's never enough light when you need it." As if almost on cue the room lit up like a set of searchlights turned on but that in turn was a bad sign, "Oh, fuck me!"

The demon took a large fiery swipe at the physicist and knocked him away from the Proton Pack and into a wall. The demon approached the nuclear accelerator and was about to pick it up when a stream of green slime shot from behind it. It turned finding Dr. Zachary LaVoy wearing Ronny's pack with the PDS activated. It wasn't much to work with, but it was all he had. It was also hurting the demon enough to gain his attention. "Ronny!" Zach screamed, "Ronny, come on, get up!" Ronny made an attempt to get up, sucking air through his teeth doing so. He crawled over to the pack and began opening the Power Cell again. He went to access the door to the containment vessel to find an electrical lock under it with three small buttons under it.

"What in the..." Ronny got out, "Zach! What the hell is this thing?"

"It's a code lock!" the Occultist screamed over the firefight, "Dan put it in here to keep people from stealing the uranium cells!"

Ronny shook his head, "I'll kill him later for this. What's the code?"

"From Motherboard forward: middle, middle, right, left, right, middle!" Ronny input the code and the Cell unlocked. The overload alarm started ringing denoting the pack was about to go into meltdown. Zach backed into his position and with one hand on the thrower, he grabbed the gloves and the one lead vest and threw it at Ronny, "Here!"

Ronny put the gloves and the vest on as he opened the cell. It was glowing bright orange. The heat was immense as he grabbed the thrower of the Ecto-Vitalizer and started firing it into the Cell housing. As the Vitalizer shot into the housing, the frost started to collect on the pack, the floor, and even himself. He kept shooting the beam of cooling Psycho Kinetic Energy until the alarm stopped ringing.

"I got it!" Ronny screamed with glee. As he got up, he looked over and repeated himself, "I got..." That was when he noticed the demon had knocked Zach down to the floor.

"That's all fine and dandy, Ronny, but..." Zach crawled back into a wall as he sudden burst out, "HELP!" No time wasted, Ronny activated the slime tether on the Vitalizer and pulled the demon off with a slime string, throwing it into a set of school lockers. Upon reactivating the cryoplasm, he started shooting the demon with the cold beam. It started to howl in pain as the beam thrashed against it. Zach took his glasses off and wiped his face before taking his PKE off his belt. Upon activating it, he found that the cold beam was having an effect...

A very positive effect.

"Ronny, it's working! Turn up the refrigeration!"

Ronny boosted the PKE gain on the pack and soon enough the demon started screaming in shear agony. The demon started to shrink heavily as the beast's flames were being put out. Zach looked around and found a fire hose on the wall. He grabbed it and turned the valve, charging the line. He ran up and opened the nozzle drenching the demon with ice cold water. As soon as he started, the demon was gone, nothing left of it but the slime in which it was constituted from.

Zach and Ronny cut their devices as they looked at each other, their heavy panting turning to steam from the ambient cold left in the room.

The Ectomobile pulls in backwards into the vehicle bay of the firehouse. Once again, Mark exits the Driver side with a cut on his forehead only slightly disguised by a hat. The others exited the truck and at that moment Ashley ran out of the basement door freaking out. She ran to Zach who was still soaked from the spray of the fire hose, "Zach! Something is in the do you know you're soaking wet?" Zach took a double take from her sister's panicked statement turned question, "Thanks for pointing that out. I totally missed that I am completely fucking drenched. What's the matter?"

"There's something in the basement!" she exclaimed, "It's coming from under the floor!"

Dan was about to walk by when he stopped, "What?"

"It's like a moaning from under the basement floor!"

Dan gave a pain ridden face as he realized something, "Shit, we forgot about Jen!"

A sprint to the Sub-Basement later Dan looked into the Pack Repair Chamber's window to find Janice thrashing around on the work table. Dan pressed the decontamination vent control and cleared the room of the gaseous nitrogen. After pulling the door open him and Zach ran in and picked her up off the table. She was still thrashing around and moaning like she was caught in a bad nightmare she couldn't awaken from.

With extreme difficulty, both Ghostbusters carried her up stairs and laid her down on Ashley's desk, knocking paperwork and computer equipment to the floor. She was shaking heavily as though she was having a seizure. Dan looked up to Ronny, "Get a flashlight." Ronny ran to the truck and grabbed his angle head. He threw it to Dan and he grabbed it, afterwards proceeding to shine it in her eyes. "Her eyes are dilated. She ain't responding."

Dan opened her blouse and put his hand on her chest checking her temperature. She was cold. Extremely cold. Her heart rate was slowing. "Oh no."

"What's wrong with her?" Ashley asked.

"I think we cooled her too long. She's starting to go into hypothermia shock!" She was beginning to foam at the mouth. Dan backed away from her as her tremors increased. She was shaking violently until finally her back arched and in a suddenly drop, she stopped moving. He grabbed her wrist and checked her pulse. One wasn't present.

"Fuck!" Dan screamed, "Her heart stopped!"

"Outta the way!" Zach yelled as he shoved Dan to the side. The Occultist put his ear to her mouth, "She isn't breathing either! She needs CPR!" He quickly opened her blouse all the way, put his palms together, and placed his hands under her bra under her diaphragm, "I hope she doesn't take this the wrong way." With that, he began chest compressions. Dan, Ronny, Mark and Ashley gave room as the Occultist started resuscitating the police detective.

"1 and 2 and 3 and 4..." he counted as he kept track of his compressions. When he reached thirty, he preformed mouth-to-mouth. After checking her pulse on her neck, he started compressions again. "Come on, goddamnit! 20, 21, 22..." Dan walked up to her and knelt down, a worrisome look in his eyes, "Come on, Jen. Please. Come back to us. Come back." Zach began mouth-to-mouth again. She still wasn't responding. As Zach started compressions again as Dan spoke on with tears in his eyes, "Jen, when this is over, we'll visit Navy Pier. We'll have a great time. I swear to god we will. We will if you just come back to me!" He sunk his head behind the desk as he whispered, "...if you just come back."

Zach continued counting until in a sudden jump, Janice started coughing. Dan picked his head back up as he saw Janice open her eyes and sit up. Dan stood up and grabbed her, "Oh god, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." "Dan," she said in a slightly stuttering voice, "I-I'm o-k-k-kay." She wrapper her arms around him. Dan looked over her shoulder and saw Zach there, "Thank you, Zach."

Zach nodded his head, "Anthony Robbins said, 'Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.' It's easy to take a life. To give one back is a gift of it's own."


	10. Chapter 10

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 10: Sibling Rivalry

In the bunkroom, Janice had a blanket around her sitting in a computer chair. Ashley came in to where she and the Ghostbusters were with a cup of coffee. She handed it to the still shivering Police detective, "Here. It ain't Starbucks, but it's hot."

Taking the cup, she spoke, "Thank you." She sipped the hot liquid as the others sat on bunks or were standing around her. She stopped sipping as she spoke again, "While Cryoka was repairing my body she showed me things. I found out what Matt is doing. When Pyrosys started going rouge, it was because he learned something. Because when people have a violent death, they expend a lot of energy and he learned that he could take that energy for his own."

"You mean," Zach asked, "when someone burns to death, their PKE levels can be taken at the time of death?"

"Yes."

Dan looked to Ronny, "Your theory." Ronny nodded as Dan looked to Janice, "Why does he want to do this? I mean, it can't serve a purpose other than..."

She cut him off, "...Using it to become a God." Everyone got quiet as they looked at each other, mouths open as a blaze of horror came over them. She took a sip of her coffee then started explaining again, "Over the years he realized that if he waited until the population of a major city center grew, he could harvest their souls in one swipe."

"With that kind of power," Ronny said standing beside the chair Janice was in, "he could wipe out the whole Midwest. Maybe the whole eastern seaboard."

"When the Algonkin god ordered Cryoka to destroy him the first time, he was a little... Well..."

"Pissed?" Mark interjected.

"That's putting it mildly." She concluded. Dan stood up and paced the room when he stopped and turned around, "Does he know?"

She looked up from her cup, "What?"

"Does your brother know Pyrosys killed your grandpa?"

Janice's eyes rolled into her head as suddenly the coffee cup steamed over. When she spoke again, there was a reverberation in her voice, "No."

Everyone except Dan jumped at the change in her voice. She spoke again, "Do not be alarmed, Ghostbusters. I am a friend. I only wish to stop my brother and the Detective's from destroying you."

"Why would he keep it from him?"

"Because Matthew's anger adds to Pyrosys's power. The hatred he has for his own sister is the greatest power to consume for it breaks the bonds of family and causes great heartache and sorrow."

"Fuel for the fire." Mark commented. Dan promptly walk up behind the mechanic and slapped him in the back of the head knocking his hat to the side. Mark straightened his hat and looked to everyone, "Sorry."

"The only way to make right of the events past is to release my brother's hold on Matthew, for only then he can be destroyed."

Ronny scratched his head, "How do we do that?"

"Simple," Dan answered, "we tell Matt the truth. Even if we have to beat it into him."

The day started like any other. In the morning hours, the heat – although intense – was not as bad as it was going to get. Summer was at it's peak on this day and someone knew it. Matt was walking around on the top of a building looking over the edge, watching the people below go about their lives. Shops opening, trains rolling on tracks, cabs zipping along the streets, all of it signaling the start of the day in the city of Chicago. "This is it, Pyrosys. Farmer's Almanac said around now would be the hottest time to break town." _"Very good,"_ a voice said in the nothingness, _"We are very close. I will soon be a god and you shall see your grandfather again. We shall be unstoppable."_

Even with Pyrosys keeping him company and being ever willing to help him, Matt felt some form of guilt for the things he helped Pyrosys do with his body. He thought about his sister. What he did to her a few nights ago, "Do you think she's okay? I mean, I gave her a hell of a beating."

_"Have you forgotten? She was the one that caused you to lose the only person that encouraged you, cared about you, loved you. Have you forgotten?"_

"No, Pyrosys, but she's still my sister. I don't want to kill her."

_"What about my own sister? She is inhabiting her, boy. She is trying to stop me from helping you. That shows your sister truly does not care for your feelings, just as she does not care for his memory."_ Matt held onto the edge of the building and closed his eyes. He knew something wasn't right about this whole thing, but it really did seem like Janice was trying to stop him from getting the one thing he wanted.

He thought back, back to when it happened. 3 days after the accident at the plant the wake was held. It was like stepping into hell...

July 7th, 2004. Matt stepped into the funeral home. Even back then he had his hair long and stuffed back into a pony tail, but he had cleaned up. Wearing a nice suit jacket with a green suede dress shirt underneath, he walked into the room. At the end of the corridor was a casket, it's top closed to shield it's interior from the eyes of the visitors. Firefighters dressed in dress, showing their respect for their fallen. Pictures placed throughout the front of the chapel were displaying the fallen man's greatest achievements. Being pinned by the Mayor of Chicago in 1975, playing with his own children in 1967, and showing his grandchildren's first visit together at his home, the pictures were the memories of his life.

Women morned, men saluted, children wept. Matt looked around him and saw the distraught nature he was in the midst of. He walked toward the pictures and looked closer at the image of the old man holding a small baby boy and standing next to them was a little girl looking over her baby brother. He picked up the frame as an older woman came up from behind him and put her hand on his shoulder as she spoke softly, "He really loved you two. I remember the day I took this picture, you were only two days old."

"I know grandma," Matt said as he slowly placed the picture back where it was, "I just wish I got to tell him one last time that I loved him. I'll never get that chance."

"Sure you will," his grandmother said, "there will be a day you will get that chance. Good-bye's are never forever." he felt her arm release him, but as she turned to walk away he asked, "Where's Jen?" She stopped. "She's still working, Honey. She said she would be here when we started."

Hours passed. It was time to head to the grave site to put the man to rest. The Chicago Fire Department Honor Guard started moving the casket to the hearse, everyone in attendance walking slowing behind it. As they moved outside to watch the coffin get loaded into the Cadillac, Matt looked around in the parking lot of the funeral home trying to locate his sister's car to find it still had not arrived. Matt was beginning to grow angry with Janice.

In his car following the funeral precession, Matt called her cell phone only to keep getting her voicemail. He had called her station to see if she had left and they told him she was still off somewhere. She was really starting to ware on his nerves. In the car his grandma rode in the passenger seat looking over at her grandson noticing he was very aggravated. He ended his call for the 4th time followed by him slamming his phone on the dashboard of his car, wedging the phone between the dash and the front windshield.

"Matt," his grandmother said with worry, "you can't be mad at her. She was there when it happened, she's not in the right state of mind for this right now!"

"No, but she was in the right state of mind to be there and not here. Fucking bitch."

"Matt! Watch your mouth!" she shouted angrily, "It's unbecoming of you!"

"Sorry, Grandma. It's just..." he sighed, "Never mind." With that the precession entered the Cemetery. The Pastor's words gave no comfort as he watched the Honor Guard carry the casket to the grave plot and rest it on the pulleys that lowered it into the ground.

As the casket was being lowered, the only thought that went through his head was why she wasn't there. More and more, people left the plot area after the Pastor had departed, people throwing roses into the grave as they passed by. It felt like forever to him as he watched more and more people leave him behind. His grandmother had decided to leave with his mother for he did not want to leave yet. It was though he wanted to crawl into the grave himself but he couldn't bring himself to do so. He was so angry at his sister, he couldn't bare it.

Twilight. Everyone had gone to the gathering at his grandparent's place to talk about their individual experiences knowing the man of honor, but there were only two that weren't there. Matt was still at the cemetery looking over the grave, his anger fuming over the absence of his sister. That was when he heard it. A car engine approached and stopped just short of his car. It was her.

Janice approached the grave and stood next to her brother. She was still wearing her regular police uniform. There was silence, a terrible silence. Janice could feel her younger brother's anger as though it was like heat emanating from a stove, burning hotter and hotter as the silence went on. Her heart was pounding for she knew that what had happened that day made him sore.

"I went to grandma's," Janice said breaking the silence, "she said you'd most likely still be here." There was nothing. Matt was not responding and she knew that was not a good sign. "Matt? Matt, please speak to me." Matt was still not talking. He was breathing heavily through of his nose, the only sound was his inhaling and his exhaling. "Matt, you're scaring me."

She hung her head and was about to walk away, "Where do you get off?"

She turned around as Matt spoke again, him never turning away from the headstone, "You ignore my calls, you refuse to show up, and now you wanna talk to me? You have no right to be here."

"Matt, this has been a very bad week for all of us," she tried to explain, her voice cracking from the emotion, "The man gave his life for me!"

"And this is how you repay him? By forgetting him the day he's to be laid to rest?" He turned around and started walking to his car. As he passed her by, he stopped turned his head to the side, "Some gratitude."

_"It is time. We must prepare before noon." _Pyrosys broke Matt's concentration.

"Absolutely." Matt turned around and headed toward the roof access door, disappearing into the darkness of the stairwell.

It was a long night. In the basement at the electronics lab, Dan had his face on the bench as he slept. It wasn't a very sound sleep as visions passed his minds eye, witnessing a very disturbing sight.

Dan was walking up to the park, his heart sinking as he knew what was going to happen. A column of fire shot up and took on a human form. Matt stepped in front of him and stood between him and and park. Suddenly, to more pillars of fire shot up, took on demonic forms and grabbed Dan under his arms. The burning was intense as he started screaming in pain. Matt gave a menacing smirk as suddenly at the fountains, he saw children. The little boy was seen so clearly in his sight, standing just feet from where Dan was. The other children formed behind him staring at the Ghostbuster.

The boy spoke, his voice so clear, _"Why didn't you save us?"_ Dan's heart began to race as he asked again, _"Why didn't you save us? Why didn't you save us?"_ Soon after the other children slowing joined in, couple at a time, _"Why didn't you save us?"_ The more they asked, the louder they became. The more and more they asked, Dan started to shake with distress as he tried to pull away from the demons holding him. The children started walking closer, still asking but now their voices got louder. As their voices increased in volume, something started to happen with them. They suddenly burst into flames as they approached the Ghostbuster.

Their contorted, burned faces still asked the question as the little boy came up to him. All of them stopped asking and stopped approaching. "Why didn't you save _**me**__?_" the little boy asked. Dan couldn't speak. All he did was close his eyes and shake his head. Finally he spoke, "I'm sorry."

The boy grabbed Dan's legs and set him on fire. Dan screamed as the flames overtook him, the pain of the fire quickly burning off his suit, his flesh, and burning his bones to ashes. When his legs were gone, the demons dropped him to the ground to have the children grab him all over and set him on fire. There was a bright light. An explosion...

There was a rumble. Dan woke up and fell off his stool to the floor. Before he could get his bearings the Containment Unit started winding down. The alarm klaxon sounded as the basement started turning red with alert lights. As fast as it started, Ronny, Zach and Mark ran down the stairs from the upper floor to relay information to their colleague, "Dan!" Zach exclaimed, "The power transformers down the street just exploded! Everything in Chinatown is out!"

Dan shook his head as he finally woke up, "That means..."

"The Containment Grid!" Zach screamed.

Dan scrambled to his feet then ran to the spiral staircase leading to the Sub-Basement followed by the others. Next to the unit's expansion bottle was a diesel generator with a battery startup system. He looked to the starter to find the key missing, "Fuck, where's the key?"

"The key?" Zach asked, "What key?"

"The ignition key! I can't start the generator without it!"

"Why would I have the key?"

"The day I quit and gave you all of my keys! Where the fuck are they?"

"I donno! In a drawer somewhere!"

Dan quickly ran up and grabbed Zach by the front of his flightsuit, "If we don't get this thing started in 30 seconds, we're all dead!"

Mark suddenly pushed both of them to the side, took out a retractable knife and pried the ignition plate open. He cut the wires and started hot wiring the generators startup controls. Upon crossing the wires, the starter turned over and the generator came to life. As the generator roared with life the unit whirled and started up. After finally powering up, the alarm stopped. "YES!" Dan screamed wrapping his arm around the Mechanic, "Way da go, Mark!"

"Like I said, if it's got pistons and rings, I'm the man with the talent," Mark said smiling. That was when from upstairs, the Ghostbusters heard the main basement door open as Ashley's voice rang out, "Guys, get up here! You have to see this!"

On the roof of the firehouse, the roof access door opens with the four Ghostbusters and their secretary running out. On the front edge of the building, Janice was already there watching the sky. In the distance, plumes of smoke shot into the darkening sky as in other areas electrical buzzes were heard accompanied by blue flashes. After each buzz and flash, there was a loud explosion following it. It was terribly hot outside. The Ghostbusters were sweating and they had not been out more than a few seconds. Dan approached the edge of the building, standing next to Janice seeing what she saw.

"What the hell is that?" Dan asked, "Thunder?" "No, all the transformers in the city are burning out," she said, "It's to hot for them to keep from exploding." In the distance there was a sound. It was soft and low at first, but it got louder. Then there was another similar to it. Then another. Then another. Everyone recognized the sound.

"Civil Defense Sirens," Dan said. Ronny spoke, adding to the engineer's statement, "And they're in alert mode." Everyone went back inside the firehouse where they ran into the bunkroom to turn on the TV. The EAS was playing on the TV when after a moment a voice message was broadcast, "The Emergency Alert System has been activated for the following Counties - Cook, Will, McHenry, Lake, DuPage, Kenall, Grundy, Kane, La Salle, and Kankakee. Please stand by for further information." Dan shook. This was a very serious event. Power transformers exploding, demons killing people at random, sirens going off, darkening clouds... The fact he felt like he was in the beginning stages of a nuclear attack never set well for him. The Alarm tone on the TV blared as Janice walked up to Dan and grabbed his hand.

She felt him trembling. This was scaring him and she knew it. After a moment, the tone stopped and another voice message came through, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mayor Richard M. Daley." the video feed cut from the EAS display to a podium at Chicago City Hall. The Mayor got in front of the camera with a large grouping of reporters asking all sorts of questions at the same time when one of his aids interrupted them by yelling out, "Please, we'll have time for your questions, please!" Everyone quieted down.

Mayor Daley was a mess. It looked as though he was in a panic to get out of his office and get into gear getting ready for the camera. His tie was loose, his jacket was soaked in sweat, and his hair was thrown around as though he had been running his hands through his hair.

The Mayor cleared his throat as he pulled a set of papers out of a folder he had with him, "People of the City of Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area, an emergency alert has been placed into effect in our fair city to address the extraordinary events that began taking place at around 12:00 pm this afternoon. The heat advisory has triggered a series of explosions with ComEd power transformers throughout the city and it has been brought to my attention through the National Weather Service that the temperature of the city has now increased to 110 degrees, surpassing the hottest day the city has experienced in recorded history.

"These events have forced the Chicago City Council, the Illinois Safety Council, and the Greater Chicago Damage Prevention Council to convene and the only action we can take is clear. As of now, I am calling for an evacuation of the City of Chicago until all the damage has been contained and the weather advisory is is over..." the mayor continued talking as the phone rang.

Ashley walked over to the phone in the bunkroom, "Ghostbusters: Chicago Division... Just a moment." She walked over to Dan and tapped him on the shoulder, "Dan, Mayor's office." He turned around. Janice watched as Dan grabbed the phone from Ashley with hesitation, "Ghostbusters, Shannon speaking."


	11. Chapter 11

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 11: Love and Sacrifice

Mayor Daley was looking out of the window of the conference room as he watched the sky fill with the smoke of the burning transformers. The office was dark, the members of the city council anxious and sweating from the heat. The lights in the building were not off because of the transformers, no. They were off to help preserve power for the Air Conditioners that were working overtime keeping the office cold. At any moment, the power could be completely out so it was imperative to get the issue resolved as soon as possible.

One of the Mayor's aids came in the door, knocking lightly to get his attention, "Your Honor, the Ghostbusters and the head of the PCU are here."

Daley turned around and looked at his aid momentarily, "Send them in." The Chicago Ghostbusters walked into the conference room, eyes of all sorts turned to them as they walked to the Mayor. Dan extended his hand, "Mr. Mayor, I'm Dan Shannon of Ghostbusters: Chicago Division."

"Yeah, I know you." the Mayor said, refusing to take the engineer's hand, "You're the assholes that allowed a bunch of kids get killed. I know damn well who all of you are!" That made Dan mad. He was about to walk up and punch the Mayor in the mouth when Janice came up from behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. She spoke, "Mr. Mayor, I'm Detective Bellum with the Paranormal Crimes Unit. We've been investigating with the Ghostbusters to find the root of what has been happening and..."

"I know!" Daley said interrupting her, "I've been reading your reports, Detective, and at this point I'm about to throw you in the booby hatch, too! Are you telling me that some damned Demon from some Indian tribe has come back to torch the city again?"

"Did her reports make mention that this thing feeds on fire?" Dan asked sternly, "If that wasn't the case, we wouldn't be here."

"Exactly, Shannon. I gathered that much!" Daley walked to the head of the table and sat down. "I have damn near three million people panicking because of mass power outages caused by excessive heat that is currently 8 degrees hotter than the weather service said it was going to be! Obviously this is beyond an act of God!"

"You're right, sir," Zach said as he stepped forward. "It's no god, but a demon wanting to become a god."

"What?"

"The demon killed those people in the park because it needs their souls to become powerful enough to torch this city. Once he takes those 'Damn near three million' souls, he's going to rain sweeping fires throughout the Chicagoland area, through the state, and who knows how long before the whole Midwest is on fire." Some of the city council members shifted in their seats, others taking off their glasses to put their heads into their hands.

The Mayor looked down to the table as Zach continued, "You did one thing right, Mr. Mayor, you ordered people to evacuate. What we need to do is stop this thing before it torches the city off the map."

Daley folded his hands and rested his chin on his thumbs. He stayed looking at the table, sweat running down his brow. "I'm a religious man, but I don't believe in things like this. I have personally stated against that soul harvesting business of yours and in the end I think you're more a danger than anything this city has experienced before."

The Ghostbusters looked at each other with a sense of tension as the Mayor spoke again, "But, if you say this thing is controlling the weather here and you can do something about it..." There was an explosion outside. The Air Conditioning turned off and there was a large commotion outside the room. The members of the city council shuffled around in their seats as one of the aids ran in and exclaimed loudly, "Your Honor, our emergency generators just overheated and blew up! They're on fire!" The Mayor jumped to his feet upon hearing that, he ran to the window to see smoking billowing from undetermined source. The other members of the council crowded around him as they made an attempt to look out the window themselves.

"What do you need?" The Mayor asked.

Police rushed through the city streets. In each squad car was three officers; one driving, two in the passenger seat in the front and back driver side seat. The one in the back and the one in the passenger seat had their windows down and pointing portable laser thermometers and thermal goggles on loan from the military checking each building for extreme heat output. It had been nearly 45 minuets since the Mayor ordered every available officer not assisting with the evacuation to check every building in town.

Back at GBHQ the Ghostbusters were loading up with their equipment to get ready for the call. Ronny had quickly loaded Zach's and Mark's pack with crude PDS's to be used on Pyrosys's host once Dan and Janice decelerate and drain his power. "They're not perfect," Ronny said finishing the installation of the green synthesis canister onto Mark's pack, "But they'll do the job."

Dan placed the Ecto-Vitalizer into the back of the truck as he explained the plan, "Once the cops find Pyrosys, we're going to need to keep cool in there. We're going to need to trip whatever fire suppression system the building has to try and circumvent the heat and keep us from getting heat stroke. Once we do that, me and Jen are going to seek him out and freeze the fucker until his power is almost gone. Matt's going to be stingy so once we slow him down we're going to need the Slime Blowers to force him out."

"I got a question," Mark began, "How are we going to find this fruitcake Flambé? There's over eleven hundred high rises in the city." Janice came from upstairs with Zach right behind her, "Because every police officer in the city is searching the buildings with night vision goggles and laser thermometers. With as many officers as we have, it might take another..." the phone rang cutting her off. Ronny grabbed the phone, "Ghostbusters, Tade..." He nodded his head, "We'll be right there." He hung up the phone and grabbed the post-it note he scribbled the address on. "They got it. 225 West Randolph."

Everyone scrambled to the truck except Dan. Something about that address was familiar, "Did you say 225 Randolph?" "Yeah," the physicist responded.

"Why does that sound familiar?" Dan asked himself getting into the front passenger seat. Zach was about to get into the truck behind Dan when Ashley came up from the basement, "Zach! Wait a second!" The Occultist stopped and turned to his younger sister, "Ashers, we need to get out of here."

"I know, but..." she stopped as he saw her crying, "I just wanted to tell you..."

"Don't. I will come back, okay? If something does go wrong... Ashley, you have to get to Des Plaines and you have to get Mom and Grandma. You have to get them out of here. Head for California and give the West Coast Ghostbusters all our files. There's a copy of everything on the hard drive of the computer. They'll know what to do with em."

"What about your Containment Unit?"

"Don't worry about it. Chances are, if something goes wrong, there won't be much to do about it. Just run. Okay?" She nodded her head as Ronny yelled out to him, "Come on, Zach! We're eating time!" As he turns around to get into the truck, Ashley grabs him and hugs him. She whimpered slightly as she told him one last thing, "Don't make me move them. You come back." She let go of him and backpedaled to the desk. He got into the Blazer and she hit the door control on the desk opening the door. Mark started the vehicle and blasted the siren. The truck pulled out of the engine bay, tires screeching as it took off toward I-94. "All of you... Please come back."

On I-94 heading northbound, the Ectomobile was joined by 4 Chicago Police cruisers and 2 National Guard troop transport trucks. As they moved north, the Ghostbusters saw the southbound lanes of the highway backed up with people fleeing the city. People got out of their cars and started waving their hands in the air cheering the Ectomobile on as it passed by.

Inside the truck, it was silent. You could hear a pin drop, everyone getting mentally prepared for what lied ahead. Dan broke the silence, "You know, I wish I never did it."

"Did what?" Ronny asked. "Hit her," Dan answered, "It was a really stupid thing for me to do. If I could take it back..." he signed and shook his head. He felt a hand on his shoulder as Zach spoke, "Dan, it's okay. You didn't know this was gonna to happen. Come on, buddy," Zach shook his hand on his shoulder, "This is no time for regrets."

"It isn't that," the engineer said, "It's just, I royally fucked up. I promised to make up for it by never letting it happen again. I just hope this time time I can make sure I can keep that promise."

There was a silence. Janice sat in between Zach and Ronny with her eyes fixed on the man in the front passenger seat. She knew what he was going through, but more was unknown about his pain. There was something else she couldn't see.

"Come on, guys!" Mark said enthusiastically, "We're the Ghostbusters! We've never been defeated before."

"Yeah," Dan scuffed, "Tell that to Dr. CJ London."

The sky was starting to grow dark as an orange hue loomed over the city. Fires were starting to break out spontaneously in random sections of the city. A type of thunderous roar was heard hanging overhead as the Ectomobile pulled up to the front of 225 Randolph. The squad cars and the military personnel trucks blocked off the streets entering into the building's entrance. Everyone stepped out as Dan got a look at the building. Over the entryway was a familiar logo.

"No wonder why the address sounded familiar. This is the old SBC building. I did a union demonstration here when I was still working for AT&T. Man!" he yelled as he turned around and paced in the middle of the road, "It HAD to be an AT&T building!"

"Never mind that now," Ronny said opening the back hatch of the truck, "We gotta stop this before he collects the souls from earlier." Dan shook his head and walked to the back of the truck to join the other Ghostbusters already there gathering their equipment. Janice walked toward one of the police officers blocking the road, grabbed a few ammunition clips for her pistol, and walked back to the Ghostbusters who were now loaded into their Proton Packs with the exception of the engineer who wore the special pack with the three tanks of slime.

Janice checked her pistol's clip to see how much ammunition she had in it as she spoke, "Matt is completely unaware of that Pyrosys was the one that killed our grandfather. We should take into account that if we try to convince him, he's not going to listen. Just..." She stopped a moment as she sighed, "Just do what needs to be done, even if it means killing him."

"Let's hope," Dan said putting his hand on her shoulder, "it just doesn't come to that. We ready?"

"No time like the present," Mark commented, "Let's do it." All four Ghostbusters heavy one Police Detective walk to the front doors of the building. Zach and Ronny pull their throwers and blast the doors open with streams. The doors shatter and explode as all five people walked in. It was like a blast furnace inside with a temperature hot enough to melt plastic. The building reeked with burnt flesh, an odor to familiar at this point. Inside the lobby itself was an easy 120 degrees, the air around them visible as the heat bends it.

"Mark, Zach, Sprinkler Control room," Dan instructed, "Jen, Ronny, with me." Dan started walking to the elevator bank with the physicist and detective in tow. Once there, Dan pressed the call button for the elevator to find the button was not lighting.

"Dan?" Janice said, "Evacuation alarm."

"Oh, goddamnit!" Was all Dan screamed as he ran to the stairwell. He kicked in the door in anger as he stood at the base of the stairs. Ronny came in after him with his PKE meter out and took a scan, "Everythings focused on the 28th floor. We got a climb ahead of us."

"No no no," Dan said, "We'd never survive it in this heat. We've only got one option." Janice walked up to the stairs, "What option is that, techno-boy? The elevators are out."

Dan answered by pulling the pack's thrower and activated the PDS, "I got one idea," He pointed the thrower at her arm and shot a slime tether onto her wrist. She looked in shock, "No."

"See you upstairs," He pointed the thrower up the center of the shaft and launched the other end of the tether. The tether snapped and rapidly pulled the detective up the stairwell as she screamed and kicked in the air wildly.

Ronny looked at Dan with both his eyebrows as high as they could go, "You know, she's gonna be very pissed at you for that."

All Dan did was shrug, "Either that or exhaustion. You tether me, I'll tether you." Ronny sighed as he pulled his pack's thrower. He shot one end of the tether to Dan's chest as Dan did the same to him. They pointed their throwers upward, "This is gonna suck," the engineer finished as the both of them launched their tethers upward.

Janice was hanging off one of the rails above a landing as she tried to detach the slime from her wrist. As she hung there she saw two more slime strings fly up and nail the underside of one of the staircases. She heard screaming as it got louder. The slime tethers tensed as suddenly the two Ghostbusters that were accompanying her flew up and started dangling from the front of their uniforms. As they dangled there they got their bearings and saw Janice still hanging off the rail.

"Jen!" Dan called out, "You alright?"

"If we survive this, I am _so _gonna kill you."  
>"I'll take that as a yes." "Well, mister genius," Ronny said in a grumble, "how do you plan on getting down from here?"<p>

"You still have that pistol I gave ya?"

"Uh huh?"

"It shoots Ectoplasmic Destabilizing pulses. Take it and shoot the slime with it." Ronny took the gun out of the holster and pointed it at the slime. One trigger pull later, Dan was on the ground. After another, Ronny followed. The both of them stood up and brushed the hardened slime off their uniforms, "Hey!" Janice yelled, "What about me?"

"Hold on a sec!" Dan and Ronny ran up the stairs to get to the landing under her. Ronny aimed the pistol but stopped to ask, "What were to happen if I hit _her_ with this thing instead?"

"Total atomic destabilization?"

"Uh... I won't miss."

"Yeah, not missing is good." Ronny shot a bolt of protons square onto the slime. Janice started falling as Dan grabbed her midair from over the handrail, "Got ya, kid!" Dan groaned as he pulled her over the railing and placed her on the landing. Her legs gave out a second, but Dan held her up, "Whoa, easy."

"I have to admit," She said as she nervously chuckled, "they never covered this in training. Always thinking."

"Hey," the engineer said, "I think on my toes." They locked eyes. Her eyes were warm despite having a spirit of winter within her. Still having her arms around him – It felt right. They closed their eyes. They got closer. Their lips about to touch...

"The PKE valences are getting higher." They broke contact as they looked at Ronny, his nose buried in the meter, "We better get a move on." He started walking into the door for the floor, leaving Dan and Janice on the landing.

"Son of a...!" was all Dan said as he followed the physicist in. Shaking herself out of her daze, Janice commented, "I wonder how the others are doing."

"This has _got_ to be it!" Zach was pointing to a control panel in a small closet nearby some large red valves. Mark looked over his shoulder as he read the panel himself, "Looks like sprinklers. Wait a minuet..." There was something he wasn't familiar with, "What the hell is, 'Halon 1301'?"

"It's a fire suppression gas used to displace oxygen. Dan encountered it when he was in Argonne National Laboratory. It chokes the air out of the room so the fire can't burn."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Well, if someone is in the room, they can suffocate. Why?"

"It says it's only available on floors 25 through 28. Where are they?" Zach shrugged as Mark grabbed his radio, "Shannon, Fontanetta. What floor are you on?"

"What do you mean you can't turn on the fire suppression system?" Dan had his radio in hand talking to Zach on the other end, _"Their's Halon gas as part of the suppression system. We turn it on, the fire doors will lock and you'll suffocate."_

"Why the hell..." was all Ronny asked before he snapped his fingers, realizing why, "He knew we were coming. He knew if he were to do it outside the building or somewhere were we can cool off, he wouldn't have the advantage."

Dan rolled his eyes as he looked up, "Fuuuck," he clicked the button on his radio, "You two better get up here, then. There's nothing you can do from down there." There was static, "Guys? Fontanetta, LaVoy." Still static. He slammed his radio against his palm and tried again, "Guys!"

"It's no use," Ronny commented, "the PKE levels are starting to interfere with the radios."

"You mean," Janice asked, "No backup?"

"Nope, we're hosed." She was starting to get edgy was Dan walked up to Ronny and wrapped an arm around him as he spoke to her, "Don't mind him. If there's anything I learned about this guy in the few weeks I've worked with him, it's that speech is not his strong suit."

"Look," Ronny began, "the point is we need to hold him off. We're the only ones so we're going to need to work together on this. He has to be somewhere were he won't be bothered." Suddenly his PKE meter went off. He grabbed it off his belt and looked at the reading to find multiple PKE signatures starting to gather in the building. "Oh, shit."

"I don't like, 'oh, shit'," Dan stated with a disapproving tone, "what's, 'oh, shit'?"

"If we're gonna find him, we better do it now. He's calling the souls from the Park."

"Okay, we'll split up. Me and Jen will take the south end. At this range we should still be able to use our radios." Ronny nodded as he took his thrower off his belt. The Engineer and the Detective walked off to the southern end of the floor.

It was dark in here. Inside this room filled with random equipment, the shear heat being expended was fueling his thoughts. Matt sat on the floor next to telecommunication switching equipment, eyes closed and hands on his temples. He was thinking of what's to happen once he achieved what it was Pyrosys was planning to do. As soon as he thought of him, it was as though he was speaking of the devil himself, _"They are here."_ Matt's eyes opened.

Dan had his goggles on surveying the floor. He looked about as the Janice had her pistol out checking the darkness. It was eerie for her. This whole experience resulted in her almost losing her life and her job. It wasn't all her either. The only thing that worried her the most was Dan. He had seen so many scary things in his life, she wondered if something like this was easy for him to brush off.

That was when she heard it again. The same thing she heard in the park. They were voices. Since Janice was being inhabited by a demon, her powers carried over into her that allowed her to see the dead. Hear them. Feel them.

"Oh my God." It was all Dan said as he slowly raised his goggles. Janice looked to find that Dan could see what she saw. Hear what she can hear. "Because of my experience with the dead," he said, "I noticed over time after being exposed to large amounts of psycho kinetic energy it altered me."

Janice walked up to where Dan was and she saw what he did. Out of the window where were many wisps of light, light blue ghostly light starting the circle the outer confines of the building. Dan turned to look at the detective, "I don't need the goggles to see them any more. I can hear them just like you can." He looked up to see tears in his eyes, his face covered in sweat. "I can hear them, Jen. Ever since the Park erupted, I can hear them and feel their presence. The PKE in the park finally drenched me enough that I can not only detect them without my equipment..."

He sat at a nearby desk as he started to get flustered. It was obvious that her suspicions were correct, "You're no longer the same, are you?"

"They visit me in my dreams!" Dan burst out in tears. It seemed that he had finally cracked from the pressure. "The little boy. He visits me in my dreams, has been for almost a week. He asks me, 'Why didn't you save me?' I don't have an answer for him. I never have an answer for him!" He grabbed his sweat drenched head and starts doing as he did in the police departments interrogation room, "The images. They never stop! Can't you hear them?"

Janice walked up and held his head consolingly. He cried onto her blouse as he kept talking, whimpering sobs as he tired to make sense of it all, "All I wanted to do was do good and I all I do is make things worse. I never help, all I do it hurt people! All this is my fault!"

"Dan, you do do good!" She said, rubbing the back of his head, "You saved a lot of people over the years! Those people at Argonne National Laboratory, all those people in the subway tunnels and the stores! Those people could have been killed if you weren't there to stop them."

"All that shit means nothing!"

"Yes it does!" She pulled his head from her bosom and knelt down, "If it weren't for your leadership and quick thinking, me and Cryoka would have died. It's because of you I'm still here. That means a lot."

"But, I almost killed you, too." He said looking up.

"Me and Cryoka knew the risks of this joining when we started. We can't let little things like the mistakes we made in the past get in the way of us being good people! I should know. I made the biggest mistake of them all." Dan hung his head low, still feeling really low about what was going on around him.

"Do you trust me?" Dan looked up, but quickly looked down as if he wasn't sure how to answer. She asked again, "Do you trust me?" Dan shrugged and shook his head noting he wasn't sure. In his disillusioned state of mind, he wasn't sure of anything. "Well," she started, "I trust you. I trust you because I trust Cryoka. She tells me that despite what has happened in your past, you're a very good man," she grabbed his hand and held it tight, "For that, I would trust my life with you."

Dan stood up and walked to the windows again. He stood there for a moment as he rubbed his eyes, clearing away the sweat and tears. He was still hearing the voices, but as he finally cleared the sweat from his brow with his sleeve he turned around. He stood up straighter, now becoming self aware of how he just reacted. Janice walked up to him and stopped short as she spoke, "Let's finish this. Together."

Ronny still had his nose to the meter trying to zero in on Pyrosys' location. The meter was showing max readings everywhere. He clicked the talk button on his radio, "Tade to Shannon." _"Shannon here. What ya got?"_

"I got a PKE white out. The spiritual turbulence in this place is so high my meter is off the top of the scale on all frequencies."

On the other end of the radio, Dan and Janice crowded around the radio as the detective asked, "What the hell does that mean?" "It means the readings are so high our detection equipment can't give us a fix."

_"I'm going to have to... Hey!" _The radio cut out as Dan tried to respond, "Tade? Tade, come in!"

"_Dan!" _the radio crackled, _"He's here! Southwe..."_ all was left was static. "Shit! He's in trouble!" Dan exclaimed. "He said Southwest," Janice stated drawing her pistol, "Lets go." Both of them broke out into a light run as they make their way across the building.

Meanwhile, "How the hell did they get up here? I feel like I'm gonna die!" Zach was panting heavily as him and Mark climbed the stairs. Mark wasn't as winded do to the weight of his equipment, but was sweating badly. The both of them took refuge on a landing as they caught their breath, "Jesus man, you really need to move it if we're gonna make it, we're over halfway there. See?" Mark pointed to the indicator next to the door they stood next to, "23. We're almost there."

"Easy for you to say," Zach scuffed as he panted, "you got the pussy pack."

"We'll be there in no time. Come on!" Mark began up the stairs again as Zach groaned, "I think you spent too much time with Dr. Stantz. That sunny disposition is starting to piss me off."

Dan and Janice ran into a door that lead into a different section of the building and as soon as they entered the room, they saw him. Matt was holding Ronny by his pack's straps, Ronny being busted up and bleeding. His glasses were off his face, head slumped down denoting he was unconscious. He was covered in green slime as though he was trying to protect himself with it like in the Sears Power House.

Matt turned his attention to the Ghostbuster and the Detective as he spoke, "That slime trick doesn't work on me." He let go of the Proton Pack's straps and allowed Ronny to drop to the floor. The crazed possessed man laughed as suddenly he became engulfed in flames and disappeared. Dan ran toward Ronny and checked to see if he was okay.

Janice ran up behind the crouched Ghostbuster, quickly taking a room scan with her pistol as Dan checked his fallen compatriot. After looking him over, "He's alright. He took a rather nasty beating, but he'll live."

"Why didn't he just fry him?" She asked,

"I think the slime actually did protect him," He stood up and he pulled the thrower from his pack, "He's just trying to spook us into thinking it doesn't work." Dan worked on his thrower as Janice checked her pistol again asking, "What do we do now?"

"If I hit him with this and somehow switch to the slime, I could contain him myself."

"What's the possibility you won't survive this?" She asked releasing the slide on the gun.

"Pretty high unless the others get here and Ronny recovers."

"Too bad." That was the last thing Dan heard out of Janice's mouth when he saw sudden flash of light and felt a bone chilling "CRACK!" Dan yelped as hit the ground like a sack of flour. Janice had pistol-whipped the engineer in the back of the head knocking him out beside Ronny. "I trust you with my life, but I don't want you to have to deal with that burden. I lost one person that way." She bent down to the engineer's side, rolled him onto his side, and kissed his forehead then whispered as she stood, "I hope you'll understand that I had to do this on my own." She walked away, never looking back.


	12. Chapter 12

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 12: Hearts and Minds, Broken

Matt was overlooking the city, or what he could see being the building they were at was dwarfed by the buildings surrounding it. He saw that the souls were in continuous orbit around the lower sections of the building awaiting Pyrosys' command to absorb them. He suddenly felt a presence behind him. A cold one, "Isn't it beautiful, Jen? They look so free and easy."

Janice walked closer, gun in hand ready for anything. She stopped shy of arms reach of her brother as she pleated with him, "Matt, they're tortured. All they want is to pass to the other side and Pyrosys is doing nothing but holding them here. Don't you see what you've done?"

"I know. I know like you know." He turned around to face his sister face to face, "I'm just doing this so I can see grandpa again. I made a promise to myself to do whatever it takes to bring him back."

"By killing people? No life is worth another's! Can't you see you're being used?"

"Used?" Matt's voice raised as he took a step closer. Janice raised her pistol slightly to remind him the gun was pointed at him. He ignored it as he spoke, "Pyrosys is helping me. I know what was done was not right, but anything to get the one person that cared back in my life!"

"The only person?" she yelled, "Matt, everyone is worried sick about you! You don't want to do this! Million's of people for one? Grandpa would never want it this way!"

"SHUT UP!" Matt became engulfed in flames again as suddenly Pyrosys took over his body. The voice changed to confirm it, "You cannot stop this now. YOU CAN NOT STOP ME!" Janice opened fire on him emptying a clip of bullets into her own brother's body. It had no effect for the bullets vaporized upon striking the flame around him. He created a funnel of fire from his palms that shot outward toward her as suddenly the fires parted. Cryoka acted fast in taking over Janice's body to protect her, launching a pulse of whitish-blue energy. The fires dissipated as the cold wave struck Pyrosys in the chest head-on, knocking him into a set of office cubicles.

"It is time, brother," Cryoka said in a reverberated tone of Janice's voice, "You must stop this. These people do not deserve to die."

"Then join me, sister," Pyrosys said, rising to his feet while saying so, "We can be God and Goddess. Together, the Algonkin War Spirit will tremble at us, the people will be obedient and orderly. If they do not, they shall be sacrificed."

"Then I'm afraid I cannot let you do that, brother. You will have to be destroyed once and for all."

"Then you will have to catch me!" Bursting into a ball of flames, he vanished. This time, Janice did the same, but as a billow of steam.

In a random section of the building, Janice reappeared, collapsing to the floor. She realized Cryoka had released her, "Cryoka, why did you give me control of my body?"

_"Because in this heat, I cannot keep my power. I have to conserve my strength."_ There was a silence as Janice stood up but was soon broken when the disembodied voice asked, _"Why did you knock out the Ghostbuster, Detective?"_

She took a moment to ponder it as she slowly reloaded her pistol, "You wouldn't understand."

_"What would I not understand?"_

"He helped us this far. I can't risk him getting killed for my mess."

_"That does not explain my lack of understanding."_ She knew she was right. The reality of it was, she didn't know how to explain it without it sounding like the demon inside her was completely heartless, "Do you know why my grandfather sacrificed himself for me?"

"_To make sure you lived."_

"Because he loved me."

_ "I do not understand 'love'. I was created to protect life for continuity."_

"That's why I did it," she cocked her pistol, "Because I love Dan. To make sure he doesn't have to fight."

_"You harmed him to love him?" _Janice shook her head, "I told you you wouldn't understand."

Dan heard voices, but they were not disembodied. He started hearing it more and more clearly as he stirred. "Ugh..." "Hey, he's coming around." Dan opened his eyes slowly to be greeted with Mark in his face, "GAH!" The first thing he did was push Mark's face away, "Jesus, man! Lay off the onions!"

As Dan sat up he felt a shooting pain in the back of his head. As he rubbed it, Zach walked up with some water for him and Ronny for when he woke up. Has he handed the downed Ghostbuster his cup, he asked, "What the hell happened?" Dan took a drink before he explained, "I donno. Me and Jen got a call for help from Ronny. We came up on Matt and... Oh, SHIT!" He stood quickly, "Jen, you crazy fucking cop!"

"What? What is it?" Mark asked. "She nailed me with her pistol!" Dan screamed, "If she's gonna do what I think she's gonna do, she's dead!" He pointed to Ronny, "Wake his ass up!" "How?"

"Oh, Goddamnit!" He grabbed the cup of water from Zach and threw it at Ronny. The water splashed him in the back of the head. Upon contact, he awoke with a start. Almost immediately he got up and took a defensive stance. He looked around and saw the others around him and he relaxed, "Where're my glasses?" He quickly found them and picked them off the floor. One of the lenses were cracked, but he put them on anyway.

"We gotta find Jen," Dan said with great tension in his voice, "and we better hurry."

Janice heard noises around the corner. Her senses were detecting that her brother was nearby. As slowly as possible, she edged to the corner of the wall and started overhearing a conversation between Matt and Pyrosys, _"We're reaching the peak of the heatwave now. It is almost time. I'm afraid we need one more soul, though." _"Who? That Shannon fuck? The big one?" _"No." _Janice rounded the corner and pointed her gun towards Matt's back, "Matt. Don't move." Without turning around, Matt took off like a shot. Janice muttered under her breath, "Shit!" She ran off after him and rounded another corner with her gun in front of her...

Matt was waiting for her.

He grabbed her hand as Pyrosys helped burn it making her release the pistol. Matt quickly grabbed the gun, turned it into her chest. She looked him in the eyes, "Matt..." BLAM! Her eyes became unfocused as the bullet passed through her chest and out her back. As she wheezed in to try and speak, BLAM! A second bullet tears out through her back.

Elsewhere in the building, the Ghostbusters heard a loud blast as Mark jumped and asked, "What the fuck was that?" Another rang out as Zach screamed, "It came from upstairs! Come on!"

Janice fell to her knees and gripped his arm as she spoke to her brother, "Matt. I'm so sorry." She started coughing blood as she looked up one last time, the light fading from her eyes, "No matter what happened, I always..." She coughed again, the blood trickling down from her lip, "...Loved you." Upon those words, a look of horror came upon Matt's face as Janice lost her grip on his arm. She fell backwards to the ground, her eyes still open but without life.

Matt backed away from the body, smoking gun still in his hand. He was shaking as though he was freezing. He looked at the gun he was holding. Upon the completion of his realization, he threw the gun to the floor in a state of panic. Just as he was about to run to the stairwell, Dan, Ronny, Zach and Mark burst through the door to find him standing close to the body. Dan saw him and started running toward him screaming, thrower in hand and charged.

Matt was frightened out of his mind. The man in the blue, sweat drenched flightsuit had an extremely manic look in his eyes as he approached him. In mid stride, Dan dropped the pack's thrower and was about to tackle him when suddenly Matt erupted into flames and disappeared. Dan missed and slammed into the floor. He pounded his fist into the ground as he got up, "I'm gonna kill him!"

"Dan." The engineer turned around to find the others standing around Janice. Zach was crouched down, "Dan," he said somberly, "You better get over here." Dan walked slowly to where they stood. As he walked, he dragged the pack's thrower behind him, the shock and horror building as he saw her laying there.

Dan knelt down beside Janice as the Occultist tried to speak, "I-I think she's dead. I t-think she's..." Dan shoved him away as he spoke, getting louder and meaner as he spoke, "Get away from her. Get AWAY!" Her eyes were still open. He was shaking violently as he looked at her. He rose his hand and placed them over her eyes. Sliding his hand down, he closed her eyelids, in the same slide caressed her cheek following it down to her chin. The man closed his eyes and hung his head.

"I've had enough of this." Dan was growling as he spoke, a tone a voice that was scaring the other three Ghostbusters as he stood up. Dan was grinding his teeth as he looked to Ronny, "Where. The. **Fuck**. Is he?" Nervously, Ronny quickly took his meter out.

On the roof of the building Matt sat huddled in a corner with his head in his hands. His hands were still stained with Janice's blood as he shook with adrenalin. All he did was talk to himself, "Jen, what did I do? What did I do... I-I-I'm so sorry, Jen..." _"What are you so concerned about?"_ Pyrosys asked, _"You did the one thing you set out to do. Now she has payed for her savageness."_

"Jesus Christ, I didn't want to kill her! I was mad at her, b-b-but..."

_"'But' NOTHING! What she did was a crime against your grandfather! She can no longer interfere."_ Matt slowly raised his head as he looked out to the nothingness of the roof. _"They are coming. We must prepare."_

They reached the very last landing before the final climb to the roof. The four Ghostbusters stopped as they rested looked up to the roof access door. "Lets hold up here a minute," Mark said as he bent over, his back being a bit sore. The Ronny and Zach leaned against the wall catching their breath as Dan walked to the handrail. The heat was unbearable, the climb of even two flights was wearing them out now as present from the amount of sweat that was drenching their uniforms, whatever their design.

Dan was very angered. He was still grinding his teeth as he closed his eyes. From everything he had seen in the last week, it was only fueling his anger. He breathed heavily as his knuckles turned white holding the railing. Zach looked over and saw his friend, looking as though he was practically tearing himself apart with grief. The Occultist pushed off the wall and walked up beside him.

Without looking over, the Ghostbuster spoke to the engineer, "Dan, I know you feel horrible for what happened, but we have to finish this." "I have full intention of finishing this," Zach turned to him as Dan spoke, "When I get a hold of him, I'm going to kill him."

"You mean Pyrosys, right?"

"No," Dan looked over at him and spoke in a unsettlingly mild tone of voice, "I mean Matt. I'm going to take my thrower and I'm going to burn him with the Pyroplasm. I'm going to kill him and make sure he dies slowly. I'm going to make him suffer."

Zach as well as the others looked at Dan with very distressed looks on their faces as Zach looked his friend in the eye, "You can't mean that."

"Don't I? Don't I?" he yelled, his voice echoing off the walls of the enclosed stairwell. He let go for the railing as he started walking up to the stairs but Ronny and Mark stepped in his way and grabbed him. He struggled with them as Zach ran up and turned Dan around to face him, "No, you don't!"

"Let go of me! Let go or I'll..."

"What, Dan?" Zach asked in an angry tone of voice, "What? You'll kill me?" Dan stopped struggling as he looked attentively at his fellow Ghostbuster, "Why the fuck would I do that?"

"Dan, you thickheaded moron, you're playing his tune! You kill Jen's brother you'll be no better than him. You'll be proving Lynn right if you kill him! Is that what you want?" Dan snapped out of it. He stopped to think about it. As he did, he thought about what Jen had said to him about him truly being a good person. After a moment, he lowered his head and started breathing slowly to calm down, "You're right, Zach. I'm sorry, I'm..." the others let go of him as he looked down, "I'm just _really_ pissed at him."

"I know, but I would hate to lose my friend. If you'd have killed him, the guy that took me into this team and treated me as an equal would be dead, too. If not in life, than defiantly in spirit. We have to do the right thing, if not for our sakes, then for Jen's."

"And if we get killed?" Zach thought about it, looked to the side a moment as he thought. "Then we went out as the good guys." Dan looked up at him and nodded. He finally turned in a fashion when were could address everyone, "Guys, I don't know what you heard about me, and at this point I guess it doesn't matter anymore. If you don't want to do this, you can walk away now. You don't need to be hurt because of me."

Dan looked to everyone as they pondered the option given to them. They looked at each other as they had a silent conversation, looking at each other's expressions as all of them made the same decision. Zach responded first, "We came this far. You know me, I'm with ya."

"I'm ready, too." Dan looked at Ronny as he explained, "I heard a lot of things around GBI while I was there. As much as I believe some of it, I know what it's like to make a mistake. I can't forgive you. But I will stand with you because I respect you. I'm in." Dan nodded.

"I really don't know if all this crap I've heard is even true or not," Mark stated, "but from what I've seen, you're the most awesome guy I've been around. I'm sticking around." With that, he grabbed his thrower and charged it up, "Now, let go blow something up!" With that, Dan finally had a smile on his face. It was the first time in years has he ever felt so excepted my his team. His friends...

These men were his brothers.

Dan grabbed his thrower and started the Ecto-Vitalizer, "I don't know what's going to happen, but I want you all to know I'm damn proud of all of you. Come on," the Engineer said as he approached the stairs, "Lets do what Mark says and blow something to pieces!" All smirking, the other three Ghostbusters followed their leader.


	13. Chapter 13

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Chapter 13: Death, Life, Redemption

Thunder tolled in the sky, the arrival of the peak of the summer day coloring the clouds overhead orange. Matt stood on the corner of the massive building overlooking the city, the few remittance of the people in the city scattering for safety. The sirens still sounded in the distance, now switching from alert mode to attack mode. Helicopters from local news stations circled overhead getting a look of the city, fires blazing and transformers still exploding in the distance. Coast Guard and Military helicopters arrive to push the news copters away from the city, warning them to leave the area on the copter's PA's.

A Fox news copter hanged overhead, the reporter Sondra Solarte was getting a glimpse of what was happening to the city when she spotted Matt down below on the building's roof, "Hold on Bryon," she said to the anchor back at the station, "We see a man below us standing on a corner of the SBC Building off 225 Randolph."

Over her ear piece she heard the news man ask, "What does it appear he's doing there, Sondra?" "I'm not sure," she replied, "He's looks like he's going to... Oh god!" Matt saw the helicopter and now his hands were starting to catch aflame, "He's on fire!"

Instead of just flash frying the overhead craft, Pyrosys shoots out a flame below the copter itself. The distorting heat waves caused the helicopter to start losing control. The pilot screamed into his headset, "This is Air Fox, mayday, we're caught in a thermodraft, we're losing control! Repeat, this is Air Fox, we're going down!" Inside the cab of the copter, the reporter, the cameraman and the Pilot were being thrown around.

Just at that moment, Dan kicked in the roof access door and saw Pyrosys taking control of Matt's body. When he noticed what was happening, Dan fired a cold beam right into Pyrosys's back interrupting his ability to throw fire around. Matt's back arched as he fell backwards onto the roof's gravel floor. "He felt that one!" Mark quipped as Dan quickly moved forward, the others following behind.

Back in the helicopter, the Pilot managed to gain control of the aircraft as Sondra and her cameraman steadied themselves to get a look outside of the helicopter. In the knocked loose ear piece she was wearing, Fox News Anchor Bryon Harland was trying to get a response from her, yelling into the ear piece, "Byron, we're okay. The Pilot tells us we were caught in a thermal pocket. We're switching to outside of the copter now... Oh my God. It's the Chicago Division Ghostbusters!" She looked at her monitor as she saw four men – Two in blue flightsuits and two in blue work shirts – wearing large black backpack sized devices now confronting the man on the roof.

Matt picked himself up slowly as he turned around to look at the Ghostbusters that now accompanied him on the roof. The copter stayed trained on them as once again Pyrosys took control of the body, screaming in his reverberated voice, "You are too late, Ghostbusters! It has now reached the peak of the day! Fire is my domain and now you shall live in it!"

"Matt!" Dan yelled out, "I know you can hear me! He's using you! You have to reject him!" for a moment the intensity of Pyrosys's flames started to die down as Matt started to come through, speaking in his normal tone of voice, "I can't do it, Pryo, I can't!" The flames burst forth again as the reverberation returned, "You MUST! WE MUST! They have been confronting us from the beginning, the time is now! Call them NOW!"

Matt threw his hands out and suddenly a loud rumble. Dan grabbed the sides of his head as he fell to his knees. He was screaming though he was hearing something extremely loud. Zach bent down next to him, "Dan! Dan, what's the matter?" "I can hear em!" the engineer screamed, "I can hear the souls! They're in pain!" Zach picked him up as they all watched as a torrent of blue light started reaching toward the sky. It flew up passed the news helicopter as the cameras caught it all, "Byron" the reporter asked, "Are you getting this?"

"Holy mother of God!" the news anchor asked, "Corey, are you seeing this?"

The flames around Matt's body increased as the souls started circle him, passing through his body and becoming absorbed within the flames. "Zach?" Ronny asked, "What the hell is going on?"

"Exactly what we feared," the Occultist stated with a gaping mouth, "He's becoming a God."

Dan staggered to his feet as he started talking. It was time to reveal the truth to him, "Matt! Is this what you want? Do you want to be a man who wants to remembered as a killer? Or an Artist?"

The flames started to die out again. The few souls that didn't get absorbed scattered elsewhere as Matt looked over at Dan, the Ghostbuster approaching him as he spoke, "What about your family? They're going to die if you do this! Your grandfather would never want this!"

"It didn't work for Jen, it's not going to work for you!" the possessed man screamed.

"Don't you know how he died?"

"He killed himself to save her!"

"I know the truth! And so does Pyrosys." Matt blinked. As he looked at the Ghostbuster, being possessed my Pyrosys he had access to some of his powers. He looked in the Ghostbuster's eyes and saw that he wasn't lying. "Pyrosys, what happened to him? He knows something and I want to know." Matt's head dipped as flames overtook his eyes, "It is a trick. He is a lier and a savage. Destroy him!"

"The man that was at the power plant dumping the coal into the boiler," The Ghostbuster yelled, "He was possessed by Pyrosys!"

"He is lying to save his own life, destroy him now!"

"Your grandfather will die in vain! You kill me, you'll be as wrong as I was the day I slapped Lynn Springsteed. Don't make my mistake!"

"Stop resisting me and DESTROY HIM!"

"He needs you to kill people. You can resist him! He has to inhabit a willing host, fight him! Fight him, Matt! FIGHT HIM!"

Matt started screamed as he fell to his knees, the flames were flickering wildly as visual burning scars started to appear on his face and his arms. Throwing himself onto his back, Matt grabbed his throat as a pillar of fire blew out of his mouth. Matt continued to scream as the fires shot from his throat, "Man," Ronny commented, "talk about your bad case of heartburn."

"Blowers! Now!" Dan commanded as all of them activated their PDS's. They ran up and started spraying Matt with the green psychomagnatheric slime. The flames shot from Matt's mouth until a massive fireball blew out of it shooting straight into the air right past the helicopter flying overhead. Matt coughed as he rolled over and started vomiting orange slime out of his mouth. Ronny and Zach grabbed him under his arms and pulled him to his feet, "Get him outta here!" Dan screamed. The two Ghostbusters dragged Matt to the roof access door and placed him inside. Dan and Mark stood looking up, the fireball still hanging in the air above their heads.

In the news helicopter, the Reporter was reporting back to the station with everything she saw, "Byron, it looks at though there's this strange... Fiery orb hanging overhead. The Ghostbusters are just standing there. I think we can..." She was cut off by the arrival of a Apache helicopter flying right into her sight, blaring it's PA at the small craft, "Air Fox, this is the U.S. National Guard. We're ordering you to evacuate the area. It is not safe, evacuate the area now!"

The fireball dropped to the roof and started taking on a form. The form was almost human in form, if only made up in flames. The PA from the Apache kept blaring orders at the news copter as the fiery form looked towards the military aircraft. "Evacuate the area!" was the last thing the PA let out when the demon's arm flew upwards and let out a stream of fire nailing the propellers of the craft. The Ghostbusters ducked as the prop started melting and became disconnected at high speed everywhere. The copter began falling onto the building as Dan and Mark looked to find it coming right at them. They ran and dove toward the floor as the Apache hit the corner of the building and careened toward the street below, smashing into the building next door and the L tracks before slamming into Randolph.

Pyrosys was in his true form, walking toward the damaged corner of the building getting ready to finish the pilots of the craft off. He saw the two Guardsmen staggering out of the craft looking up from where they just fallen. Dan turned over and saw what he was going to do and screamed as he took the thrower of the Ecto-Vitalizer and pointed it at the demon, "NOT THIS TIME, FUCKER!" He let loose the cold beam and hit Pyrosys again as Pyrosys started wailing about.

Pyrosys turned around and looked at the Ghostbusters while Dan still shot him, _"That will no longer work, Daniel Shannon."_ Dan cut the beam as Pyrosys stared at him with his fire enveloped eyes. He placed his hands in a way that his palms were facing each other and was hovering above his chest. A ball of fired formed in the space in between. "Uh, Dan?" Mark said as he stood up from his ducking position, his voice slowing getting louder, "I think he's about to go RAMBO ON OUR ASSES!" Dan scattered to his feet as him and Mark ran for the roof access door. Zach and Ronny were just coming out as Mark and Dan ran by. Looking behind their fellow Ghostbusters they witnessed Pyrosys launch a large stream of fire from between his palms right at them. They look at each other and ran out the door and around the side of the hutch as the fire burned past, diving to the side while the fires barely missed the cuffs of their pants.

In the stairwell, Matt looked up to find the fire starting to force its way down the narrow shaft. He screamed as he dove down the stairs to the nearest landing, smashing into a floor access door rolling in pain.

The flames blew around the hutch, the heat becoming extremely intense. In the heated air, Zach screamed, "Okay, what now?" Dan aimed the thrower toward the hutch and started blasting it with the cold beam until the heat and fire equalized. The hutch became engrossed in frost as an opening formed on the side of the hutch. Dan screamed, "Hose him down! I'll go and distract him!"

"Dan," Zach yelled over the sound of the roaring fire and the discharge of the device, "He'll kill you!"

Dan while keeping his finger on the trigger looked down briefly as he gave it a passing thought, "If he wants me, he won't see you comin'. Go, while the goin's good!" Mark and Ronny ran out to the other side and Zach stayed behind to look at the engineer one last time, "Go get him, Boss." With that Zach followed the others. After they left his sight, Dan shut down the pack and started running out the opposite side of the hutch. Still covered in frost, Dan ran through the fires and quickly escaped them. Pyrosys stopped shooting the fire toward the hutch and instead started launching fireballs at the fleeing Ghostbuster. Dan dove next to a large A/C compressor for cover as he reactivated the pack and started shooting a cold stream from the side of it.

Downstairs in the building, Matt crawls into the floor access door still trying to regain his composure. He crawls to a nearby fallen desk as he uses it to stand up and stabilize himself. He stood up and breathed heavily as he did. As he got his bearings, he realized where he was. He looked over and saw her. Janice was still on the ground, he body soaked in blood. He walked over it her, limping slightly as he did. Her eyes were closed now, no doubt that the Ghostbuster that discovered the both of them closing them.

As he turned to look away, he stepped on something. Lifting his foot, he looked down to find Janice's gun he shot her with in the same spot he threw it. Now that Pyrosys was not in his head, he was thinking clearly for the first time in what seemed like decades. What he did was wrong. All the horrible things he did to people while Pyrosys used him. He knew there was one thing left to do and it was the only thing he could do to redeem himself.

Matt bent down and picked up the gun, but that wasn't enough. Being with Pyrosys enough made him aware of what he didn't like and so he went to the fire hose case and grabbed the fire extinguisher from it. "I'm gonna make him pay for this," Matt said to Janice, "and I'm gonna put this right."

Dan kept firing the pack at Pyrosys as he continued bombarding Dan's location with fireballs. Dan's head was starting to pound from all the souls screaming, Janice nailing him in the back of the head with her gun, and the heat he had been exposed to. Through it all, all he could do is think about Janice. The last thing he saw of her, closing her eyes, to seeing weeks earlier when she was alive, sitting in his kitchen in Joliet sipping coffee at his table. All of it was hurting him badly.

"We didn't even get to go out on a real date," Dan said to no one. He sighed as he heard Pyrosys's voice call out as he approached where the Ghostbuster was hiding, _"Missing someone, are we? She was an exceptional girl, Daniel Shannon. Too bad she died so young..." _Dan shut his eyes and started to cry, his anger starting to get the better of him as Pyrosys's words finally took one last jab at the man's integrity, _"died so guilty." _Pyrosys turned the corner to find the Ghostbuster crouched down beside the unit. Dan looked up, tears in his eyes at the fiery figure standing before him. _"It is funny; You wanted to stay working at that occupation before you came back until you died. Now that you are here, in this AT&T building, I guess you get your wish, you guilty swine."_

"You forgot something." Pyrosys turned around to find the other three Ghostbusters with their Slime Blowers armed as Zach spoke, "Even guilty men can be redeemed." Slime flew out of the nozzles on the particle throwers as the demon became drenched. As the demon screamed, blue pulses of light surged from his form, the souls from every encounter he ever had were being released in mass. The demon's fires were starting to die out as Dan stood up and looked at it.

Something was strange about it though. The more souls were released from the form, the more the form grew creating a large, ugly creature with a huge mouth. Zach, Ronny and Mark stopped spraying as they watched along with Dan the demon's true, natural form see light. "Guys?" was all Dan asked. Dan looked at Zach as he backed away from the creature as Zach answered, "You got me, man!"

Mark noticed that the creature's heat was starting to vaporize the slime and now the demon was turning to eye the three Ghostbusters, "I donno what we did, but he's pissed!" Pyrosys started charging for them when Dan activated the Ecto-Vitalizer on full power. The beast was now responding to the cold beam as the others ran for better cover.

Dan kept laying it on until suddenly the pack sputtered and stopped firing. Dan smacked the thrower and tried again as the beast turned to him, "Aw, shit." In a large swipe, the demon knocked the Engineer across the roof into the other 3 Ghostbusters running from the situation. Mark and Ronny got up and dragged Dan behind a piece of cell phone tower equipment, Zach staying behind to cover them. He quickly joined the others as Dan still tried to breathe.

Dan coughed as he finally spoke, "Ronny!" he said in a raspy voice, "The Vitalizer isn't shooting! What's wrong with it?"

"The slime contained in it must be low. You've been firing that thing non-stop," the slime expert said, "You have to wait for the slime to replenish itself."

"How long'll that take?"

"Five minuets. Maybe longer." Dan got up shaking his head, "We don't _have_ five minuets! Is there anything in there now?"

"Just enough to help culture it. It has an underflow safety mechanism to keep it from running completely out."

"Turn the underflow off! I need this thing **now**!"

"Dan, if you do that, the slime's gone for good. This isn't like the psychomagnatheric slime."

Zach was looking around the side of the equipment they were hiding behind to see something going on, "You better figure it out quick! He's trying to get the souls again!"

"Turn it off!" Ronny spun Dan around, took out a screwdriver and cut off the underflow safety. "Underflow has be deactivated." Dan turned around and started heading toward the demon and was about to attack when the door to the roof access flew open. Matt came out armed with a fire hose as he screamed, "PYROSYS!"

"Matt! You friggan lunatic, what are you doing?" Dan screamed as he stopped short of the demon. Matt opened the hose and cold water started launching out of the nozzle at high speed slamming into the demon. Letting out a large roar, Pyrosys sent out a heat pulse that knocked everyone including Matt to the ground. The fire hose went wild upon Matt releasing it spraying water everywhere.

The end of the fire hose flew across the roof's floor and slammed Pyrosys in the head knocking the hulking creature senseless. As the Ghostbusters struggled to get to their feet due to their heavy equipment, Matt reached back into the stairwell and grabbed the fire extinguisher and jumped to his feet. He ran up and slammed the beast in the head with the pressurized canister as she screamed, "That's for me!" He wound up and smashed the demon in the head again knocking it down to the ground, "That's for my sister!"

Matt ran to the side of the demon and kicked it onto it's back, it's mouth open letting out a roar of pain. The leather jacketed man took the canister and shoved it into Pyrosys's mouth jamming it in good and tight. He reached behind him and pulled Janice's pistol and proceeded to point it at the canister in the creature's mouth, "And this is for my grandpa, you sick motherfucker." Dan looked up just in time to see Matt pull the trigger. The extinguisher ruptured from the bullet impact and blew the creature's lower jaw off as well as sent Matt flying back into stairwell hutch.

Dan looked at Pyrosys and saw it's PKE accumulation with his newfound ability. Pyrosys's power had substantially dropped as it tried to get up, "Guys!" the engineer yelled, "We gotta hit him now!" Everyone scrambled to his feet and armed their Slime Blowers as Dan activated the Cold stream. They circled around Pyrosys and began spraying him down. With a lack of a jaw, Pyrosys couldn't speak and the roaring was very labored. That didn't stop all the Chicago Ghostbusters from hitting him hard.

As they continuously fired at him, Pyrosys started to melt. Dan got closer and closer to the demon as he almost completely dissipated, watching as what souls where left in his form flee his body. Dan stopped shooting momentarily as he got close to Pyrosys and said as clear as he could, "To gain power is Savage. You're worse than all the people you killed. Time to punish you, you sorry sack of shit!"

Dan jammed the Ecto-Vitalizer's thrower into Pyrosys's throat and activated it. The demon howled and thrashed as Dan kept the pack on steady activation. In one final large roar, the demon spontaneously turned into a puddle of orange slime. The other three Ghostbusters hit the slime with their own and melted it out of existence.

Pyrosys was gone. Permanently.

Dan looked over what he had done and his legs gave out as he fell face first into the gravel floor of the roof. He was out cold.

Dan woke up, but now he was standing in front of the park. "Oh, no," was the only thing he said as he saw the children from that day approached him. In the front was the little boy, but this time his Mother was with him, in her arms was the baby girl. The little boy walked up to him and didn't say anything. Dan hung his head as though he knew what was going to happen. "I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough," the Ghostbuster said, "It's my fault."

The little boy tugged on his flightsuit leg and signaled him to kneel down. With a bit of confusion in his face, Dan did. He became face to face with the little boy as he spoke, "Mr. Armour told me to tell you you were never alone and that he is proud of you." Dan started to have tears in his eyes as he spoke, "Mr. Armour?" "He said," the boy spoke, "that he was your grandpa."

Dan broke down crying as he grabbed the little boy and hugged him. As they hugged, the little boy spoke into his ear, "When I grow up, I wanna be a Ghostbuster just like you." Dan closed his eyes and hugged the little boy tighter.

"Ethan!" the boy's mother called, "We have to get going, sweetheart." The two released of each other as the little boy spoke, "I have to go now." with that, he turned and he started walking toward the park. A bright light emerged as he saw the boy, his mother and baby sister, and everyone else that had died in every fire since the Great Chicago fire appear. All but the mother started walking toward the light as Dan looked on, standing up as he did.

Dan walked up to the mother as she held her baby daughter in her arms cooing her gently to sleep. The engineer wiped the tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his suit as she spoke, "Children are amazing aren't they?" He nodded as he looked down. She looked at him knowing what was up, "You did nothing wrong, Mr. Shannon. You did your best and that's all that counts."

"But I didn't save anyone," Dan stated with remorse, "I didn't save you, I didn't save the kids... I didn't even save the one I love. My best isn't good enough."

"Dan," he heard her say, "She isn't dead." Dan immediately shot his head up, "What?"

"She's still alive. But she won't be for long. Go to her." Dan felt a sudden push on his body as though he was being shoved. Suddenly he felt like he was falling...

Dan snapped back awake. He was back on the roof of the SBC Building. He sat up and saw everyone including Matt was staring at him. He jumped to his feet and started running toward the roof access. Everyone called out as he turned around to look at them still moving, "She's still alive! Cryoka is keeping her alive!" With that, everyone followed him downstairs.

The floor access door opened as Dan ran toward Janice's body and quickly knelt down beside her. "Jen!" he yelled as he gently shook the body, "Jen, I know you're still with us, come on!" Her eyes opened slightly as Cryoka spoke in her reverberated voice, "Ghostbuster," she said weakly, "the Detective is still here, but I cannot repair her body in this heat."

Dan grabbed the Ecto-Vitalizer's thrower and aimed it at Janice's body. He pulled the trigger on the thrower to find nothing happening. Dan clicked the thrower several times when Ronny stated, "The slime's gone, Dan. You used the last of it." Dan tore off the pack and looked at the LED display in the gearbox. It read, "CRYOPLASM DEPLETED". Angered, Dan threw the pack to the side as he looked down. Behind him he heard Ronny ask, "What about the fire suppression system?" "No," Zach replied, "The gas'll suffocate us."

"There is one possibility," Cryoka stated, "I have to sacrifice to save her."

"Sacrifice?" Dan asked.

"I have to match the temperature of the room to heal her wounds." Dan immediately shook his head, "No. No, that'll kill you!"

"I learned while being with the Detective that for one to sometimes survive, the lesser of the two must give themselves to save the other. I finally understand what love is, and it is your love for her that I wish to save."

Dan looked down to the floor. He knew what the spirit within Janice was saying, but didn't want to lose both of them. She weakly raised her hand and touched Dan's face, "'It's easy to take a life. To give one back is a gift of it's own.' My brother had taken so many lives unjustly. Even to give back one life in light of thousands lost, it would be the one in a series of redemptions. I hope you can forgive me." Dan nodded his head before she spoke again, "Time is short."

Dan grabbed her hand as he spoke to her one last time, "Cryoka?" She looked over as he spoke, "Thank you. For everything."

Dan released her hand as a blue glow started to loom around Janice's body. Matt had stepped forward, but Mark and Zach held him back behind them. Ronny, Zach, Mark and Matt stood there extremely tense as her body started to raise off the floor. The glow intensified nearly blinding everyone. Dan shielded his eyes as he stood up looking at the body. It was getting cold in the room, the glass in the building starting to be encased in frost.

The body started hovering back toward the floor as Dan stepped up and grabbed her before touching the ground. He held Janice's head as he gently shook her. "Jen?" he spoke softly, "Jen, come on, honey. Wake up." She didn't. It looked as though it didn't work. Dan hung his head as tears formed in his eyes again.

She stirred. She moaned as she lifted her head up. "Dan?" The engineer shot his head up and saw her open her eyes slowly. An excited smile started to form on his face as he spoke in an almost disbelieving voice, "Jen! You're alive!" They wrapped their arms around each other as the others behind them relaxed.

As they cradled each other, Dan asked softly, "Cryoka?" Jen pulled back slightly with her eyes pointing away from the Ghostbuster, "She didn't make it. She's gone." Dan placed his hand under her chin and lifted her head up so he could see her eyes. Her intense, light brown eyes. "At least," he said, "I still have you." They looked into each other's eyes as they once again became entranced. They closed their eyes and their lips touched. They found themselves in a very passionate kiss.

Something started to happen in between them. A blue surge of light started to form as a sudden gust of wind blew up throwing their hair wild. The light pulsed out spontaneously as a wave of cold shot through the building pushing everyone back. The pulse hit the windows smashing them open dramatically and continued out toward the city.

In the meeting room at Chicago City Hall, Mayor Daley sat at the head of the table with his head in his hands. One of his aids ran into the room and exclaimed, "Mr. Mayor, look outside! It's snowing!" The mayor stood up and looked out the window. Sure enough, snowflakes were falling from the sky. He stood in amazement, "They did it." He jumped throwing his arm into the air yelling for joy.

The snow continued falling. Walking out of the building, all four Ghostbusters, Janice and Matt walked to the Chi-Ecto, Dan with his arm around Janice. News reporters and police were in the front of the building asking for news statements. Ignoring their questions Dan asked, "You know, I could use a little cooling down for a few days. Care to join me?" Janice laughed as she responded, "No, I'm just getting warmed up, personally."

Ronny and Zach were walking side by side with Matt as they asked them a few questions, "If it's okay with you," Ronny started, "We'd like you to be a guest of ours for a few days. Mind if we take some blood and urine samples?"

"What do you need with those?" Matt asked. "Nothing," Zach quickly responded, "Just wanna run some tests. Be lucky, normally we're told to get brain tissue samples." Matt looked at the Occultist with a puzzled look on his face.

Mark walked out of the building last. After seeing the destruction of the fallen Apache helicopter, the broken glass from the upper floor, and just generally wiping the sweat from his brow, he lit up a cigarette and gave the scene another look around, "It's good to be home." He heard Dan yell out, "MARK!" He quickly put the cigarette back in his mouth and muttered, "I'm comin', I'm comin'!"

They all piled into the truck and started heading to Chinatown. Back to where the Ghostbusters of the city of Chicago called home.


	14. Chapter 14

Ghostbusters: Chicago Division

Heat Rising

By Dan Shannon

Epilogue

It was now beginning to cool down around the Chicago area. After the hectic days that have passed, it was now time to tie up the loose ends of those events. After all the destruction and loss of life, it was now time for Dan Shannon to pay respects. Accompanied by the Chicago Detective Janice Bellum who now had recovered from her prolonged possession with Cryoka, they walked into the doors of a funeral home to be directed to a room that had in the front of the chapel 3 coffins, two of them smaller than a normal casket.

Dan, being dressed in a black suit with a dark purple tie also carrying a small tote bag, had Janice on his arm as he looked at her with a look signifying he wanted her to wait by the door. She nodded and let loose of his arm to walk forward. By the coffins were numerous pictures and easels with flowers. He came up to the pictures and saw a picture of the boy from the park wearing a tan one piece suit with a Ghostbusters patch on the front and on the arm with one of those inflatable Proton Packs on his back. He looked at the picture with great discontent in his heart as he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

Dan didn't turn around, but instead lowered his head as he heard a woman's voice speak softly from behind him, "He wanted to be a Ghostbuster when he grew up. He really admired you guys." He turned to find the Judge from his hearing, tears in her eyes. Dan spoke as softly, "Your Honor, I still wish I could have done something more."

"You came," she smiled as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue, "and you punished the thing that took him from us. For me, you did everything you could do. For that, I'm thankful."

"Your Honor," Dan said while looking back to the coffins, "If I may, I wish to pay my respects." The Judge nodded her head as Dan walked to each of the coffins. He reached into the bag and retrieved a crimson rose to put on the first, the shortest coffin. The one for the smallest of the victims; the baby girl who was in the stroller. Afterwards, he reached into the bag and placed a stuffed puppy on top of the rose.

He approached the next one. He placed two more roses on the longest of the group; the mother's. After that, he went to the boy's coffin. He placed another rose, then placed another object on the top of it. He kept it hidden by his hand as he spoke, "I'm sorry I couldn't stop him fast enough, but I hope you'll be happy where you're going next."

Dan stood back and looked at what he placed as tears formed in his eyes, "Go there with your family and be safe..." He started walking backwards still looking at the coffin, "be safe, Ghostbuster." Dan blessed the coffins and walked back to the entrance, Janice in tow.

"Dan," Janice asked,"what was that you placed on the boy's casket?"

"Oh," Dan said while wiping his eyes, "just something to help him go to the other side."

As Daniel Shannon and Janice Bellum walked out the doors of the room and leave to where Janice's police cruiser was parked, we look in on the other object Dan placed on the rose on the coffin...

It was a Ghostbusters: Chicago Division patch.

The End


End file.
